e-^C^ 



-^*^ 



<f_^^-* 



SERMONS 






DIFFERENT SUBJECTS, 



DELIVERED 



IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA 



REV. EDWARD NORRIS KIRK, A. M., 

LATE PASTOR OF THE FOURTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ALBANY, N. Y. 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION, 

BY SAMUEL HANSON COX, D. D. 



"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge, 
and in all judgment," Phil. i. 9. 






r 




NEW-YORKiG/ 

PRINTED BY JOHN P. TROW: 

AND F'OR SALE BY 

GOULD, NEWMAN & SAXTON, 

THEOLOGICAL BOOKSELLERS AND PUBLISHERS, 

CORNER OF FULTON AND NASSAU-STREETS. 

1840. 






IZT-Q 



I 



Enteked according to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, 

By WILLIAM A. THOMPSON, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the South- 
ern District of New-York. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

The Author of the following Sermons has specially 
requested the publisher to state, that an application for a 
set of discourses in manuscript was positively refused ; from 
an aversion to appearing, in present circumstances, as 
an author. The Sermons now published, were already 
public property ; and the only agency, whether benevolent 
or indifferent, which the author has exercised in the matter, 
was, to furnish a worthy but indigent fellow-Christian 
some facilities for collecting the pamphlets, especially those 
published abroad. 

The profits arising from the sale of the volume are 
devoted to aid young men who are in a course of study 
preparatory to the ministry. 



CONTENTS. 

SERMON I. 

Man's Natural Enmity to God. — Published in Lon- 
don in the " Pulpit," .' page 17 

SERMON II. 

Obligations of Young Men. — Preached in behalf of 
the British and Foreign Young Men's Society. 
Published in London, 35 

SERMON III. 
Jesus the Great Missionary. — Preached in Boston at 
the ordination of Rev. Samuel Wolcott, as Mis- 
sionary to Syria, 59 

SERMON IV. 
The Gospel Ministry. — Preached at Chestnut College 
near London, 89 

SERMON V. 

The Nature and Influence of Maternal Associa- 
tions. — Preached in Surrey Chapel, London, . 115 

SERMON VI. 

Sermon to Children. — Preached in Surrey Chapel, 
London, 139 

SERMON VII. 
Practical love to Christ. — Preached in Islington 
Chapel, London, 155 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

SERMON VIII. 

Temperance and Religion. — Preached in Lockfields 
Chapel, Walworth London, 171 

SERMON IX. 

The Traffic in Alcohol. — Preached in Albany, . 205 

SERMON X. 

Valedictory Sermon. — Preached in Albany, . . 241 

SERMON XL 
Agreement with God. — Preached in Surrey Chapel, 

London, 269 

Addresses to Promote the Revival of Religion, — 
Delivered in Surrey Chapel London. 

ADDRESS I . 285 

ADDRESS II 295 

ADDRESS III 305 

ADDRESS IV , 313 



INTRODUCTION: 

BY SAMUEL HANSON COX, D. D., BROOKLYN, N. Y. 

These sermons have all been published before. One 
of them, the tenth in the series, was the valedictory of the 
Author to the people of his former charge, before leav- 
ing the country, three years since. Another, the third, 
was delivered and published in Boston, last Autumn, on 
an occasion solemn and interesting, the Ordination of a 
Missionary. And one other, the ninth, was published in 
Albany some years since. The others were all published 
in London, where they were delivered to listening crowds, 
who were not willing that they should be enjoyed only 
in the hearing, or realized only in the delivery. Hence, 
in different ways, they procured their publication. And 
hence it is that many a pious family here, and there in the 
metropolis and other parts of Great Britain, retain, as 
precious relics, and justly valued mementos, of a beloved 
American preacher of the gospel, a copy, and collect- 
ively thousands of copies, of the sermons of our esteemed 
countryman. 

We are not surprised if among ourselves should be 
the demand or the desire for their appearance in the com- 
bined and convenient form of a volume. Their Author 
has many friends, in the cities and neighbourhoods of his 
native country, to whom such a counsellor would be a 
comforter, such a companion a constant and salutary 
friend. And yet it is only an act of justice to our Author, 
to make the community acquainted with the motives, and 
the proximate causes, that have induced the present pub- 
lication. This the more, that his present distinguished 



INTRODUCTION. 



career as a preacher, might otherwise prejudice or per- 
vert the estimate of the community. 

Its present appearance, truth to say, is the result in a 
peculiar development of benevolence. The proceeds of 
the publication are all to be devoted to an object, which 
enlightened Christianity will approve, and which the 
heart at least of every minister of the Lord Jesus Christ — 
and of some more especially than others — cannot regard 
without the deepest sympathy. Our Author yields his 
volume, that its proceeds may assist indigent students in 
their course preparatory to the ministry. 

And may we here insert a plea in behalf of hundreds, 
it may be, who are labouring up the hill, with patience, 
perseverance, and penury ; the noblemen of grace and of 
nature too, but not of fortune, or titles, or rank,* whose 
object, ingenuously pursued, shows excellence of no 
common kind * and yet who are estimated as they de- 
serve, by very few of their cotemporaries. Possibly, 
to a mind like that of our Author, the reality might have 
been imagined, even if not identified in any recent in- 
stance. We have all seen such instances, and the public 
ought not to be wholly ignorant of their existence. 

To such petitioners what ordinary hardness could 
conclude a refusal 1 A Christian, and a minister of 
Christ, should not be made of sterner stuff, than refined 
humanity in other spheres of life. Nor is our statement 
a mere hypothesis for illustration. ! it is, in its basis, 
history, veritable and real, as hundreds of affecting in- 
stances attest. And what, to a mind of delicate and no- 
ble texture, and at the same time saturated with the influ- 
ences of grace, what might melt one sooner, into a 
generous and practical sympathy, than to behold or con- 
template such a spectacle ! A brother in the Lord— a 
young brother — a devoted and self-denied disciple— a 
candidate for the ministry : one that has felt want and 



INTRODUCTION. 3 

dreaded to feel it more ; that has toiled by night and day ; 
that has shrunk from no labour, mental or manual j that 
has endured privation, without repining, for the constrain* 
ing love of Jesus, and for the encouraging hope of 
preaching him ; that has done all this, and done it for 
years — done this, and more, and more, in a catalogue that 
might be lengthened, with items of truth, more wonderful 
than those of fancy or romance ! A youth, of principles 
too ethereal to be appreciated in this intractable world, 
aspiring devoutly towards an office which inspiration 
hath defined as a good work, and worthy of the best de- 
sire of the human bosom ; such an one, applying his 
mind to its mighty and appropriate labours of prepara- 
tion, with vigils, fastings, and exposures ; — and all this, 
augmented by the utter destitution of necessary pecuni- 
ary means! what obstacles, cumulative, unbearable, 
and wrong ! May it not be sin to them, in the day of 
judgment, who know these things of the noble young 
servants of the Church, and roll in wealth and luxury, 
and profess religion, and have hope towards God through 
the gospel, and yet — do nothing to assist those princi- 
pled aspirants, those devoted candidates, those studi- 
ous spiritual cadets, who are in process of training for 
official trust and duty in the high places of the field ; and 
who deserve well of Christians, of mankind, and of all 
posterity ! The assiduities and trials, consequent or con- 
comitant, in their curriculum of preliminary study, are 
quite enough, in all human reasonableness, without break- 
ing their courage against mountains interposed, 

" And poverty's unconquerable bar." 

There are several reasons why such examples are not 
appreciated by the public. The first is ignorance; or, 
what is much the same, an utter absence of reflection on 
the facts of the case. Another is the allied consequence 



4- INTRODUCTION. 

of the former — a disparagement of the value of sound 
learning in the ministry, or a contempt of the manner in 
which alone it can be acquired. The time, the toil, the 
trial, and the cost, who knows, that has no experience in 
such conflicts 1 Again, the circuity and remoteness of 
the path, the indirectness of the promise ! A preacher 
in the field, if wise and zealous and eloquent, is felt and 
loved. But who sympathizes with the student 1 who 
considers the means that were plied to prepare the 
preacher 1 the difficulties through which he rose to em- 
inence ; and the necessity of recruiting the service, by a 
process as long, as pains-taking, as costly, as that which 
enables the accomplished preacher to grace the pulpit 
with manly and masterly displays of the truth 1 The 
preacher himself considers them ; and almost none be- 
side ! Here, then, is the secret of our volume's appear- 
ance. Mr. Kirk virtually says to his young brethren, " If 
it can assist you, behold, it is at your service." This, it 
strikes us, may have been mainly the process, by which 
his mind arrived at the conclusion, to give these sermons 
to the public, in their present form. And surely his 
countrymen, in their candor and their piety, will gener- 
ously estimate the deed. "We know they will ; nor do we 
anticipate the cynic who shall constitute the exception. 
The request, we doubt not, was on their part modest and 
retiring ! But he could see and feel its force instantane- 
ously ; and we commend his decision. May the present 
writer be pardoned, if this seems too ideal, or inappro- 
priate, or imaginary ! But he has witnessed and compas- 
sionated, especially within the last seven years, and con- 
tinually to this time, too many facts in proof, to doubt the 
correctness of the delineation. Perhaps others may im- 
peach it for exactly opposite reasons ; that it seems not 
ideal, not inapposite, not imaginary. To either class he 
would say, The moral of it, is the whole of it. If Mr. 



INTRODUCTION. 






Kirk feels for these young men, let others copy his ex- 
ample. If he assists them, reader, Go thou, and do like- 
wise. Our object in this connection is not so much to ex- 
plain the issuing of the sermons, as to record a plea, 
where it may be profitably felt, in behalf of those, whom 
it would make good men better sympathetically to con- 
sider, and devoutly to estimate in relation to the cause of 
Christ ; and practically to befriend in their too often 
cheerless and uncomforted career of studious toil, as 
candidates for the noblest office in the sublunary gift of 
God, our Savior. 

From this digression, if it is one, we recover, with no 
intention of apology for what we do not recall, or regret, 
or perpetrate without design. In the mean time, the 
courteous reader, and especially the candid one — a more 
excellent and a less common character — will fully under- 
stand, and probably approve, the conduct of our Author. 
It seems plain that he did, what he ought, in the circum- 
stances ; nor do we anticipate, for him or others, one re- 
gret that these sermons are extant, in American types 
and a compact volume, as the consequence. 

It is not our purpose, however, to deal in commenda- 
tion, surely not in panegyric. The sermons speak for 
themselves. The people of this country, who care to 
read, can appreciate them too. The reputation of our 
Author is neither recent nor ambiguous. Nor is his 
praise confined to any one class of the Churches. Chris- 
tians of all denominations crowd to hear him, and will 
read to love him more. If in either, or in both relations, 
he can do them good, it is the glorious recompense that 
satisfies the prayer of his heart. If God shall deign to 
use his efforts and his ministry, to this end, it is gratifi- 
cation and benediction, whether the mode of it be in the 
pulpit or through the press. If Paul converted thousands 
by his preaching, through the blessing of God, he has 

2 



INTRODUCTION. 



with the same mighty aid saved millions more by his 
writings ; and by these, he, being dead, yet speaketh, and 
will speak, and bless mankind, till the trumpet shall sound, 
and the dead shall be raised, incorruptible. 

No analysis of these sermons, or comparison, or even 
anticipation, of their qualities, seems here appropriate. 
They were partly occasional ; partly and more, the ordi- 
nary specimens of the Author's ministry. A notice of a 
more general sort, and an admonitory reflection or two 
may suit the proper nature of this Introduction. A ves- 
tibule need not be of the same material, with the interior 
of the temple, to which it conducts us. It may be in 
keeping, and in propriety, as well as service, if less 
polished, or finished, or valuable ; to say nothing of its 
proportions, its coloring, or its taste. If this volume is 
to pass the ordeal of criticism, if it is to be tried in the 
crucibles of the schools or the parties, if it is to be tor- 
tured by malignity, or stung by envy, or probed by heart- 
less impudence, we have only to say that it will have 
friends as well as foes; that there are Reviews, Christian 
in fact, as well as in pretension ; and that if abused and 
evil entreated, it will only seem to join the goodly fel- 
lowship of prophets and apostles, and to be partaker of 
their sufferings and their honors, because it is one spirit 
with them, and with their common and glorious Master. 

We submit, in order, the following remarks : 

1. We Americans ought to value this publication for 
national reasons. It is a native production. Its Author 
is our own countryman. He has been appreciated abroad, 
and deserves to be cherished at home. We have too 
little national feeling of this refined and proper sort. 
We are too servile to what is foreign, as if nothing good 
could come from ourselves. Is this noble or ignoble, 
worthy or base, helpful or injurious 1 

What was once said, by the indignant muse of Pope, 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

to the theatre-going populace of London, on occasion of 
introducing Addison's great tragedy of Cato, and in his 
admired prologue to that celebrated production, we might 
be allowed to say, with some venturous accommodations 
in this place, to the literary and religious public of our 
own country : 

Our taste precariously subsists too long 

On coarse translation or imported song. 

Dare to have sense yourselves ! Assert the age j — 

Be justly warm'd with your own native page. 

Such works alone should suit our eye or ear, 

As Paul himself might choose to see or hear. 

And purer far, if plainer, strong in truth, 

Our pulpit speaks to listening age and youth. 

Conviction ponders well its thoughts and words, 

And converts show how God the cause regards. 

Be Christian truth our ornament and crown, 

Our best nobility, our just renown ! 

In wealth like these, America, excel, 

And show the world the art of dying well. 

Not here the church is propp'd upon the state ; 

Much more the church sustains the nation great. 

With greater blessedness, 'tis hers to give ; 

While, as she prospers, other interests live. 

And O ! may righteousness exalt our fame, 

And give to all a Christian freeman's name ! 

Be this our nation's prayer, " Thy kingdom come;" 

Be God our monarch, this Religion's home ! 

While every virtue flourishes confess'd, 

Our country's made, by grace and truth, the best! 

2. In reference to a volume of sermons, while we 
should not patronize every thing, we should encourage a 
due proportion of sound and popular reading of the re- 
ligious kind. Sermons indeed are not very marketable. 
They are often not vendible, but only, as we say, a drug 
and a surfeit. Their very name is a soporific, and no 
one thinks of valuing them as other books are valued. 
But should this be so, Christians 1 May not even sermons 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

be entertaining, as well as useful % Ought not the parlor 
library to be enriched, and even the centre table to be 
adorned, with them 1 Besides, sermons mark and iden- 
tify the age. Our posterity will talk of our revivals, our 
cast and grade of piety, our times, our learning, our 
preachers, and our Christians. Why not > preserve a 
few specimens, and send a few missives, that may tell 
them, what something better than laudable curiosity 
might lead them to desire and to learn, of the generations 
of their ancestors 1 

3. This is too much a hearing age, and not enough 
proportionately a reading and cogitative one in religion. 

There is a class of devout religionists among our- 
selves, who are characterized by their feelings mainly, 
rather than their intelligence. They want none of your 
head religion — none of your prosing doctrinal preach- 
ing — none of your preachers that are so learned — none of 
your discussions in the pulpit — none of your controver- 
sies — nothing to make men think. — All they want in reli- 
gion is feeling. Engagedness isjall. They test every thing 
by zeal and feel. They go for heart religion. This ' suits 
the age !' There is no sense in reading and studying so 
much. They would set us all to praying, feeling, acting, 
and converting sinners ; but not to thinking, apprehend- 
ing, comprehending, studying what the Scripture says 
and what the Scripture means, not to reading, or medi- 
tation, and least of all to excel in knowledge unto all riches 
of the full assurance of understanding in the things of God J 
Theirs is a religion of sensation, and as unfit to endure 
affliction, to deserve confidence, to authorize dependence, 
and to stand the test of martyrdom, as it is to teach dog- 
matical theology to an amphitheatre of philosophers— 

or, as steam is unfit to control the helm of the Great 
Western, or the British Queen, in her mystic way, which 
science alone can guide, across the ocean. 



INTRODUCTION. 



To such, if they could suffer the monition of a friend, 
we would say, not zeal, but wisdom is profitable to direct. 
Knowledge is power, and feeling without it is not good. 
Our feelings have an important place in religion ; as steam 
has in navigation. Our feelings however were not given 
to govern us, but to be governed by us ; they are to be 
our servants, not our masters ; and never man was good, 
or useful, or great, who did not assert and maintain that 
noble mastery. Look at Hannibal, look at Paul, look at Ed- 
wards, look at Washington ! — and look — instar omnium — 
at ONE — of his own class alone, who at Pilate's bar an- 
swered him nothing! 

Those who have studied character, and understood it, 
will respond to these sentiments. We may be only grat- 
ifying our own natural inclinations, only serving our- 
selves, when we flame — and rage — and rush on — in reli- 
gion, without reverence or consideration, and condemn 
sobriety and sense in our despised superiors. Now, one 
cure — and a good one — for this holy obstreperousness, 
is to feed the mind with truth — to study the Scriptures — 
to read sermons — and in all, or above all, to think ! O 
this neglected function of our existence ! this most dig- 
nifying faculty of our nature, when rightly cultivated and 
proportionately used; this most degrading accompani- 
ment, when abused, or neglected, or superseded by the 
mere animalism of feeling ! That class of hearers, that 
exemplify the stony ground in the parable, are there de- 
scribed, by our Lord, as full of feeling, promptitude, de- 
cision, ignorance, and spurious affections. He heareth 
the word, and anon with joy receiveth it. Yet hath he not 
root in himself ; and therefore is it that his religion soon 
evanishes. He dureth for a while — by and by he is offended. 
And thus is he contradistinguished from the good ground 
hearer ; who heareth the word and umderstandeth it / who 

2* 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundred 
fold, some sixty, some thirty. 

Feeling is a kind of half-way house, in which the sin- 
ner loves to loiter, for entertainment, between objects of 
sense, which affect animals, and objects of faith, which 
affect angels. He abjures the grossness of external ob- 
jects as influential of his way ; but he clings to internal 
affections as their substitute ; instead of apprehending, 
by faith in the true sayings of God, the things that are un- 
seen and eternal. Internal sensation is no more faith, than 
external objects that affect our organs of sense. The 
appropriate design of the ministry is godly edifying, 
which is in faith. Hence, says the apostle to Timothy, 
so do. And with this design, in all things, ought private 
Christians devoutly to concur, for its uniform promotion. 
Other edifying may not be godly, even if it be agreeable. 

We desire that these sermons may not only be sold, 
but read — pondered — digested — improved. This imports 
a cast of character whose auguries are hopeful. It is the 
clean and the useful animals in the law, that ruminate ; 
not the unclean, the carnivorous, the savage 5 oxen and 
sheep ; not wolves, hyenas, dogs, or swine. Hence these 
are types of cogitative worshippers j of them that feed 
on the truth ; who live by every word that proceedeth out 
of the mouth of God ; who relish the truth, and digest it, 
and grow thereby — grow in grace and in the knowledge of 
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Suppose these ten sermons were read systematically — 
regularly — thoughtfully — with memory exercised — with 
application — with definite desire to obey the Master- — to 
be converted to God, if yet we are alienate from him ; 
or, to be advanced in holiness, if we have genuinely be- 
gun our journey : suppose this, my youthful reader espe- 
cially, in your case. One, every Lord's day, well read, 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

would bring you through the series, nearly, in two 
months. And if, like the noble Bereans, you should receive 
the word with all readiness of mind, and search the Scrip- 
tures daily, whether these things are so, and especially if 
you should join sincere prayer to the exercise, for the 
blessing of God to crown its process with salvation, what 
good immense should certainly ensue ! On these condi- 
tions, what a blessing should this volume be, in the circle 
of every family it could enter ! It would resemble the 
ark of the Lord in the household of Obed-edorn, where the 
Lord, for its sake, blessed his house and all that pertained 
unto him. 

We venture another remark. 

4. The directions given to the unconverted, in these 
sermons, appear to exemplify the rare merit of correct 
and scriptural, appropriate and convincing, excellent and 
prosperous ! We may not assert that these qualities are 
exhibited in perfection, but that they are here in happy 
illustrations and examples — and that they are far too rare, 
even in the ministrations of eminence. 

The absence of these qualities, with the faults that 
appear in place of them, often constitutes the cardinal 
defect, in sermons otherwise distinguished and incom- 
parable. These preachers can distinguish well between 
a sinner and a saint ; they can define a Christian, depic- 
ture him in his various changes and relations of life, with 
his trials, his privileges, and his prospects, and commend 
him to the desire and the imitation of all hearers. So also 
of a sinner in contrast. They can well describe what he 
is, how he feels, his state, his motives, his false refuges, 
his criminality, his destiny, his apprehensions, his ago- 
nies ! But there is something more to be done — and this 
is frequently omitted, or never thoroughly despatched 
and perfected, perhaps in the preaching of a lifetime. 
Tt is — 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

To SHOW A SINNER HOW HE MAY BECOME A SAINT : and 

then, with suitable appliances of truth, to persuade men, 
and to pray them, as though God did beseech them by us, 
saying, in a way of wisdom and appropriateness, Be ye 

RECONCILED TO GoD. 

We aver that the grand defect of many an excellent 
sermon, is the absence of the proper directions to the 
sinner and the ungodly man. And we would enforce the 
sentiment that it is a fault, which criticism has been slow 
to arraign, and which reviews have not known how to 
censure. The philosophy of the preacher can ordinarily 
account for it. There is some error in his comprehen- 
sion of the gospel. He makes mistakes not only, but 
practically honors them too, as the pivots and centres of 
orthodoxy. Hence he glories in his mistakes, and would 
become a martyr for their maintenance. Some of these 
are to him, each as the star of Bethlehem, shining on 
his way ; or as the kebla* of his pilgrimage, as a Chris- 
tian and a preacher. If, as a lark of the morning, he 
would soar toward heaven, he soon ceases to aspire. His 
swift pinions are arrested in their flight. They stop sud- 
denly, because they are not so strong as the tether that 
holds him back, and to the limit of which he has too soon 
arrived. 

If he is not clear in his views as to the objective man- 
ifestations, which he is to radiate on the way of the sin- 
ner, and lavish in his path before him, wonder not should 
he prove equally at fault, in the point and the persuasion 
of his subjective applications, urging the sinner to walk 

* Kebla, among the eastern nations, signifies the point of the heavens 
toward which they directed their worship. The Jews did it toward the 
Temple at Jerusalem; the Mohammedans toward Mecca ; the Sa- 
bians toward the meridian, and the Magians toward the rising sun. 
1 Kings viii. 44, 48. Daniel vi. 10. Ps. v. 7, xxviii. 2. Jonah ii. 4. 
For the proper Kebla of Christians, see Heb. xii. 2. 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

in it. If he cannot commend to him the love of Christ, 
not in the abstract, or in the ambiguity of a scarcely in- 
telligible argument, but in the bold relief of effective 
testimony, saying, " He died for you, and that because 
he loved you; therefore hear and your soul shall live" it 
will be no miracle, if, in his after urgencies, he should 
ply him with a weak and misty and fruitless, although it 
may be with a loud-sounding and pompous, exhortation, 
to repent and believe the gospel. If his ideas of the influ- 
ence of the Spirit are technically wrong or greatly vague 
and dim, he will be sure to preach in a way palpably and 
badly different, from the way of the Spirit as demonstra- 
ted in his own oracles : and the difference will be seen 
by some, while it is felt by all. If his views of depravity 
are darkling and false, one way or the other ; if he be- 
lieves so much about it, as to impair the moral agency 
of its subject, or so little about it, as to excuse, reduce, 
or slight the awful malady of his state ; how poor, effete, 
or awry, will be his ministrations ! If he refer, awkwardly 
or in confusion, to the passive relations of the sinner, 
where God refers to his active ones ; if his statements 
are not spiritual or moral, but mechanical and material- 
izing rather ; if he unskilfully counteracts, where he 
ought only to subserve, the influences of the Spirit ) or, 
makes in any way, natively, the wrong, instead of the 
right, impression ; or, if he truly knows not how to direct 
the sinner, in reply to the Great Question, What must 
I do to be saved % there will be a proportionate failure, 
in reference to the great end of preaching ! conversions 
will be few and sickly ; as the shaking of an olive tree, 
perhaps ; two or three berries in the top of the uppermost 
bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof 
saith the Lord God of Israel ; instead of hundreds and 
thousands, covering the whole tree, richly rewarding the 
toil, and crowning the hopes, of cultivation. 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

Now, we almost claim for our preacher, that he is, in 
these relations, a happy example of what ought to be ; we 
do not say or mean, a faultless paragon : but one whom 
the Spirit has taught to do the work of the Spirit ; who 
speaks with a simplicity and a directness, that well ap- 
proximates our beau ideal of the demonstrations that 
ought to be made, in matter, in manner, in method, and 
in effect ! And let a heaven-sped success be the com- 
mentary and the attestation of our sentiment. It is said 
of Paul and Barnabas at Iconium, that they went both to- 
gether into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a 
great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks be- 
lieved. There are great men in our times, who so speak 
that nobody believes. They may amuse, entertain, and 
even in a sort convince ; but where is the " great multi- 
titude" of converts ! The sovereignty of God, remem- 
ber, is excellent in working, as well as wonderful in coun- 
sel ; and is not exactly responsible for those, and their 
doings, who are plainly unskilful in the word of righteous- 
ness — and yet, who would rather confess almost any other 
thing, that the fact which others know, just as well, when 
they ingeniously and vainly strive to conceal it. 

The criterion of the preaching, which in our mind's 
eye is the standard of all proper aims, we thus define — 
What the words of Scripture, purely interpreted, clearly 
articulated, correctly understood, solemnly delivered, 
and powerfully urged ; the effect, which all this natively 
tends to produce, on the minds of the auditory, is that, in 
coincidence with which, and in it alone, may be identified 
what deserves the name of good preaching, in proportion 
to its similitude to such a scriptural standard. 

In these remarks, we have not lost our object, if the 
reader shall keep his mind awake to the specimens of 
their reference, as he peruses them in the present volume. 
Nor will it be less, but rather more to the point, that the 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

specimens are incidental, popular, informal, and inter- 
spersed throughout. 

5. Our last remark shall respect the value, in this day 
of the great fecundity of the press, of religion and truth 
constantly mingled in all our ephemeral literature. The 
great ideas of religion and truth, that maybe safely called 
fundamental, are mainly the following, in the order as we 
arrange them : 

The Being of God. 

The accountableness of man as his creature. 

The Christian revelation. 

The immortality of the soul and the resurrection of 
the body. 

The sinful and lost estate of the total species. 

The mediation and offices of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

The work of the Spirit. 

Personal piety, initial, progressive, and complete. 

Glorification. 

Eternal confirmation and beatitude. 

And who can doubt the reasonableness of not forget- 
ting these ten incomparable things ! Well, every reada- 
ble and sound sermon is a valuable contribution to their 
perpetuity, as well as their diffusion. And what if the 
belief in God were erased from the moral consciousness 
of the community 1 All related truths would perish from 
the earth ; as would rush the planets into ruin, if the sun 
were plucked from his immoveable centre or annihilated 
there. There could remain nothing in this fatherless 
world, and nothing in the future, to attract our desires or 
attach us to existence. But — I say the rest in the better 
language of a great preacher, who as a writer is more 
distinguished, especially now that he speaks to mortals 
only in his published works. 

" The idea of the Supreme Being has this peculiar 
property ; that, as it admits of no substitute, so, from the 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

first moment it is formed, it is capable of continual growth 
and enlargement. God himself is immutable ; but our 
conception of his character is continually receiving fresh 
accessions, is continually growing more extended and 
refulgent, by having transferred to it new elements of 
beauty and goodness ; by attracting to itself, as a centre, 
whatever bears the impress of dignity, order, or happi- 
ness. It borrows splendor from all that is fair, subor- 
dinates to itself all that is great, and sits enthroned on 
the riches of the universe." 

We think our publication will subserve an end at once 
so great and so good ; and our hope is also that ends 
allied, though inferior, may be coincidently answered. 
With this, we commend it to the benediction of God, 
that he would use it to his own glory and the good of 
souls ; while we commit it humbly to the good pleasure 
of his glorious providence. And may these introductory 
reflections, written — it may be — too venturously, and 
under stress of time too little, and of urgency too great, 
to do them better, or adequately to review or correct 
them, be found at least not impeding, if haply they little 
assist, the great design, for which we preach, and pray, 
and live, and were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. 

I may add, that the author of the sermons has no re- 
sponsibility or knowledge, in reference to what, in the 
fraternal spirit, we have so freely written respecting 
them. For this, he, we know, and the Christian commu- 
nity, we trust, will make all liberal and proper allowance. 



SERMON I 



man's natural enmity to god. 



" The carnal mind is enmity with God." — Rom. viii. 7. 

If we divest this sentiment of its technical form, and 
express it in the language of common conversation, its 
dreadful import must strike the most inattentive hearer. 
The Bible is technical, because it is the Book of heavenly- 
science, and like every other book of science must em- 
ploy many phrases in a sense peculiar to itself. This has 
frequently been a theme even of ridicule to the enemies 
of its doctrines. But the controversy with words is al- 
ways of minor importance. We discover with painful 
interest the reality and extent of an opposition more se- 
rious, because it is to the truth of our text. All over the 
world, and in every period of human history, men have 
hated, not the fact here stated, but the declaration of that 
fact. Men are willing that it shall be true that they hate 
God, but they are not willing to read it nor to hear it. 
There is an almost universal reluctance to put this truth 
among the axioms or the established points of religious 
belief 5 that the human mind is opposed to its Creator 
and Saviour. At present we shall endeavour to convince 
those who admit the Bible to be an infallible teacher ; 
and therefore we shall allow in these discussions no other 
place for reasoning, than to ascertain whether we under- 
stand the written Word. If God says it, we must believe 
it. Has God then said, that the human heart is opposed 
to Him ] So we understand the text. It is clear that the 

3 



18 SERMON I. 

human heart in some state is there said to be at enmity 
with God. The only question then remaining is, whether 
that state is the universal, natural condition of man, un- 
renewed by the power of the Holy Ghost. It is, in other 
words, whether every unconverted man hates God. We 
understand it to assert this ; because the whole course of 
the argument in the context consists in contrasting the 
two different states of human nature, as renewed and un- 
renewed. But the argument from the examination of 
the record, although more conclusive and satisfactory to 
a student of the Bible than any other, is neither so inte- 
resting nor striking to persons not inclined to pursue that 
study. We therefore take up another line of argument, 
and lead you to the points from whence this dreadful 
truth so glares upon the eye, that the understanding must 
embrace it despite of the revoltings and struggles of self- 
respect and hope and conscience. We make however at 
once this concession to human nature ; we admit that 
men generally appear to be sincere in denying that they 
hate God. We meet, then, on the threshold, the appa- 
rent opposition of all human consciousness and experience 
to our doctrine. We maintain an apparently extravagant 
truth in face not only of what men believe, but even of 
what they feel. We appear in the bold position of telling 
men that concerning themselves which they know to be 
false. Ask any number of men directly this question — 
Do you hate God'? The reply in almost every case will 
be made with perfect sincerity' — No, I love Him. And 
this answer will often be fortified with an argument ; why 
should I hate the Being that gives me all my blessings'? 
It is this supposed consciousness, that fortifies men so 
securely against the testimony of God. Now it is impor- 
tant to understand precisely on the one hand what it is of 
which men are conscious, and on the other of what the 
text asserts. Few men see in their hearts any tiling like 






19 

hatred of the character of God ; they see against it no 
anger, no rankling, no opposition in positive exercise. 
Nor does the text assert, that this hatred is, in all, a pre- 
sent, positive, outbreaking emotion or disposition. It 
simply declares, that the attachment to forbidden objects 
and pursuits, which characterizes all hearts naturally, in- 
volves in itself enmity against God. Our text does 
not assert, that sinful dispositions have yet ripened 
to their full malignity, nor that man has yet seen to what 
lengths they will carry him. It simply and only declares, 
that man has committed himself in the ranks and work 
of rebellion ; that he is virtually and in reality an enemy 
of his God, although he may have as yet that enmity un- 
developed in its more terrible forms. It asserts, that 
man has begun a career, which will, if unchecked, plant 
him beneath the banner of rebel angels — an eternal, un- 
compromising enemy of heaven's glorious King. To the 
proof of this awful truth we advance. We see enough, 
and we mean to show enough, to convince the world that 
men need but a change of circumstances to develope 
forms and degrees of wickedness, which would now be as 
incredible to them as was Hazael's predicted depravity to 
him. See you that statesman, amiable, courteous, gene- 
rous 1 He lives in perfect amity with all in his neigh- 
bourhood. Ask him if he is conscious of enmity towards 
a human being. His sincere response is, Not toward one, 
not even that rival in the career of ambition, (who, it 
must be observed, has never yet crossed his path.) Re- 
turn to the place of his residence after many years, and 
hear the village stories of anger, reviling, and finally of 
the fatal duel between these former friends ; and see the 
lasting hatred which yet burns even in their offspring. 
What has kindled this strange fire in that once peaceful 
bosom 1 Where is now the firm consciousness that once 
induced the frank and earnest disavowal of enmity'? 



20 SERMON I. 

Alas ! a change of situation and of circumstances changed, 
not the man, but the exercise of his selfishness ; and it 
was by this change, brought out in forms hitherto un- 
known to himself and to others. Fellow man ! thou art 
ignorant of thyself; thy heart is an enigma to thee : God 
knows it, and God has given His testimony concerning it. 
Thou art to live through many, many changes. Thou 
mayest be confident in thyself; but He who knows the 
end from the beginning, has declared dreadful things con- 
cerning thee : and time and eternity, with their incon- 
ceivable changes, may yet make thee what now would 
force the exclamation — " What ! is thy servant a dog, that 
he should do this thing V 

Man in his selfishness is the enemy of God. He be- 
lieves it not, because he knows not who or what God is, 
or because he will not compare himself with what he does 
know of God, to see how he does regard Him. And the 
more fully God unveils His character, His government, 
His plans, the more decided and the more dreadful will 
be the enmity felt and exercised. Let us go a little fur- 
ther into this very consciousness of man that seems to 
contradict the words of God, and behold in it their strong 
confirmation. 

I. Man hates the character of God as a Lawgiver. If 
there is any prerogative of His nature for which Jehovah 
will contend with the power of His throne, it is that*of 
making laws for His creatures. And if there be, on the 
other hand, any strength in man's attachments, any firm- 
ness in his purposes, any ardour in his pursuits, any de- 
termined opposition to that which interferes with the in- 
dependence of his will or the accomplishment of his 
cherished plans, then is unconverted, selfish man, an ene- 
my of God the Legislator. It is true that this rebellion 
against the Divine government, this opposition to the Su- 
preme will, does not manifest itself in the same forms as 






man's natural enmity to god. 21 

rebellion against the various kinds of moral government 
in human society ; and this is one great source of decep- 
tion. The feelings, which, in the one case, are hidden, in 
the other are strong and prominent ; not that the hatred 
and opposition are less real to the Divine government, but 
that the human government presents itself more obtru- 
sively to its subjects. There are, however, occurrences 
in every individual's life, which, if properly observed, 
would echo back a fearful testimony to the truth of the 
Bible. It is in incidents considered trifling, that man 
shows his character ; and he who has accustomed him- 
self to observe the incidents of human life as reflectors 
of the human heart, can read in the passing events of 
every hour the indexes of all that constitutes that heart. 
Reflect on an occurrence like the following. There were 
in the metropolis of one of the United States two young 
men full of glowing health and elastic spirits. They se- 
lected for a drive the very hour of a beautiful Sabbath 
morning, in which the devout had just commenced the 
worship of their God. They were urging a spirited steed 
down one of the leading streets, and securing the general 
attention ; but in the very height, hilarity, and speed of 
their movement, they were suddenly brought to a morti- 
fying stand by a strong iron chain drawn entirely across 
the pavement in front of a church. It need scarcely be 
said, that they felt the emotions of indignation and hatred 
against the chain and against the authority that threw it 
across their path. They had been conscious of no such 
hatred before j it was a new emotion drawn out by new 
circumstances. But God himself had thrown another 
chain across their path, stronger than iron or adamant — 
He had uttered with His own awful voice from Sinai* 
" Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" — He had 
interposed his own awful authority to prevent these young 
men from " doing their own pleasure" on that day. And 

3* 



22 SERMON I. 

why then did they not feel the same hatred rise against 
this obstruction to the gratification of their desires 1 This 
is a question of great importance ; and though the answer 
is brief, it is worthy of deep reflection : — Because it was a 
moral, and not a physical chain — because it made their 
pleasure wrong, but not impossible — because it consisted 
for the present only in a precept and a threatened penalty. 
Had Jehovah met them when sallying from their dwell- 
ings—had He laid His mighty hand upon their puny arms, 
and held them back from their career of sinful pleasure — 
had He sounded in their ear his awful threatenings at 
every step of their progress — had He shown that for every 
moment of pleasure He would visit upon them ages of 
wrath — then they might have found that they hated Jeho- 
vah as they hated that iron chain. But no ; His holy 
law lay unobtrusive in their neglected Bible ; it troubled 
them not, it checked them not, and hence they felt no 
present opposition to it. Jehovah bade His sun to shine 
upon them, and was sending the tide of life in gladdening 
pulses through their frames ; and they could exclaim with 
entire security, ' Why should I hate Him 1 He does me 
nothing but good.' Let the awful truth be repeated — man 
has staked his happiness against the authority of the 
eternal Lawgiver. And. it is a fact, to which the world 
should attend with the profoundest interest, that just as 
much as man loves his own happiness, just so strongly 
must he, if unconverted, sooner or later, hate the legisla- 
tive rights, character, and acts of Jehovah. This hatred 
sometimes breaks out on a broad scale, and " the kings 
of the earth set themselves against the Lord and against 
His Anointed, saying, Let us break His bands asunder, 
and cast away His cords from us." And there has prob- 
ably never been the age nor nation, in which the men, 
who have boldly and urgently asserted the law of God 
in its length and breadth, have not drawn upon themselves 



man's natural enmity to god. 23 

the persecution either of ridicule, of hatred, or of death. 
Which of the stern prophets was not hated and sought for 
as a beast of prey, even among the Jews 1 Who is the 
man in this age and nation, that dares to urge the law of 
God on his contemporaries, upon the penalty of endless 
death, that will not be called by the various consecrated 
titles of puritan, bigot, and fanatic 1 It must be so as long 
as the human heart is true to its own constitution ; if it 
seeks its own gratification as the end of its existence, if 
its whole plan of happiness is based on that, then it must 
hate that holy law which enforces upon it an end so dif- 
ferent, by an authority so dreadful, and under a penalty 
so awful. There are two ways, in which men have al- 
ways endeavoured to avoid the painful discovery of the 
truth we are urging. The one is, to deny the revelation 
of a law so pure and holy and difficult and contradictory 
to our passions. If a man can fix his foot firmly on that 
ground, of course he will discover no opposition to the 
lawgiver, because he sees no clashing between the will of 
God and his own will. The other course is, to admit the 
existence of the law, but on various grounds to deny the 
execution of the penalty. But here is the strong hold of 
our argument. We do not say, that man will hate a God, 
who tells him not to do this or that wrong action because 
it is very bad, but that, if he does, God is so merciful, He 
will treat him just as well as He does the obedient angels. 
We say, it is manifest beyond all contradiction, that if 
God be such a God as He has declared himself to be, if 
He means to maintain His own authority at the expense 
of His creatures' everlasting well-being because they have 
set themselves in opposition to His will, if men hate the 
torments of the second death, then must they either change 
their plans and hearts or hate the character of God the 
Law-maker. If it be that there is no everlasting punish- 
ment for unbelief, for impenitence, for worldliness, for 



24 SERMON I. 

neglect of religion, then we abandon our present argu- 
ment. But if we understand the record aright, then we 
challenge the world to deny this proposition, that a great 
change must pass upon the ordinary character of man to 
have him willing, nay pleased, to see God threatening 
with His everlasting wrath the pursuit of selfish gratifica- 
tion. If there is a cherished object with the human soul, 
it is to maintain the independence of the will ; and if men 
will but read their own hearts aright, they will find this 
the contested point even with their Creator. The strug- 
gle is slight, and suspended by constant intervals ; but 
Jehovah is coming out from His hiding-place to reveal 
His Supreme authority, armed by His mighty thunders. 
Will the unsubdued, long-indulged will of man then bow 
sweetly 1 If mercy and love have failed to soften, will 
Majesty and Terror win the heart % No, fellow-men ; 
no. Hear it from God's messengers now, in the land of 
hope and in the day of peace. No ; " the carnal mind is 
enmity against God ; and is not subject to His law, neither 
indeed can be." 

We see this truth from another point of view. 

II. Man hates the sovereignty of God. God is the Su- 
preme Being ; all things being made by Him and for Him. 
His right to accomplish His own desires, and to include the 
free actions of man and all the human powers in His plan, 
none will deny. Nay, it is evident that He must carry 
out His plans, even to the sacrifice of every other inte- 
rest which may have made itself inconsistent with those 
plans. But what if the plans of a sovereign God require 
the abandonment of our most beloved objects 1 must we 
then cordially submit 1 Yes, you must either love or 
hate a sovereign God. If you love him supremely, your 
chief happiness will be derived from seeing Him accom- 
plish His sovereign will. Tf you prefer your own imme- 
diate gratification or apparent temporal interest to His 



■ 



25 

will, then either His will must be unperformed, or it must 
accord with your will, or you must be the enemy of God. 
This argument is conclusive to him who will reflect upon 
it. But we can look at it in a more impressive light. Is 
the human heart strong in its attachments 1 Yes, that is 
its glory ; and yet in the very strength of those attach- 
ments, when perverted, the heart will find its sources of 
rebellion against a sovereign God. Is there not strength 
in the attachment of a man to the wife of his bosom and 
to their lovely little first-born son 1 But -what if that hus- 
band is suddenly called from the midst of his business, to 
behold that lovely infant a pallid corpse, and that lovely 
wife in the agonies of death 1 Would it be strange if he 
should raise his clasped hands in the frenzy of suffering, 
and exclaim-—" O God ! what have these innocent ones 
done, that Thou shouldst thus tear them from earth's 
bright prospects — what have I done, that Thou shouldst 
rob me of more than life V' Say not, this is exaggerated. 
There was one, who could say under circumstances some- 
what similar — " The Lord gave, and He has taken ; 
blessed be His name." But that man had not the carnal 
mind ; he had learned to value the creature less than the 
Creator ; he had not looked to the creature, however 
lovely, however promising, as the source of his highest 
happiness. Acquiescence in the will of God was the 
main-spring of his joy; and hence the loss of beloved 
objects but furnished an occasion to manifest that resig- 
nation. But our text speaks not of that class of minds, 
and we are not speaking of them. We speak indeed of 
the heart of man full of the tenderest sentiments of kind- 
ness, and susceptible of all that is noble in attachment to 
objects worthy of its love. We speak of the heart not 
loving wrong objects, but loving them in undue propor- 
tion ; of the heart that clings to any earthly good with all 
the intensity of its passions. And of this heart we affirm, 



26 ' SERMON I. 

that in its present condition it is liable every moment to 
such an in-breaking of the hand of God to tear away all 
it has cherished and adored, that a new emotion of en- 
mity may spring up like a viper, and become under the 
successive intrusions of a sovereign Providence the mas- 
ter-passion. Do you love any thing, fellow-man 1 — is it 
a human being — is it the good opinions of men — is it the 
universal idol, wealth, as possessed or as pursued 1 Go 
into thy heart, and know thyself; see if it is not possible 
for the plans of God so to interfere with thine, that He 
would appear to thee thine enemy : and if He did, wouldst 
thou love Him 1 Hast thou learned to love thine enemy, 
thy strong enemy, who mars each favourite scheme, who 
hurts thy good name, who maims thy body, who takes 
from thee thy gold ; nay, who makes thee in the same 
day a desolate mourner at the tomb of thy wife and child 1 
But from this appeal and the argument couched under it, 
there is an apparent escape. It is either that such things 
will not happen to the individual ; or if they do, he will 
not trace them to the hand of Providence. Upon these 
replies much might be said to confirm our position. The 
cases stated are neither imaginary nor of unfrequent oc- 
currence ; and if they should not occur, it is not the less 
certain that the carnal mind merely tolerates a sovereign 
God so long as His plans do not interfere with those it 
has cherished. And with regard to the others, it is true 
that there may be such an atheistical disregard of the 
hand of God in the common events of life, that he may 
not become the object of immediate hatred because He is 
not recognised as interfering with the individual's happi- 
ness ; but what if the man should find out, that nothing 
takes place but by His ordering — what if he should dis- 
cover, that the most common events of our life form so 
many links in the great chain which binds the purposes 
of God to their issues — what if he finds God charging 



27 

him to see His hand and will in each minutest occur- 
rence 1 will he love Himl — No, not if there be strength 
in human passions — no, not if he has not learned to love 
his enemy — no, no ; the man who hates the insect which 
annoys him, who hates the robber of his property, the 
murderer of his child, the tyrant that casts him in prison, 
must find the same emotion arising towards even the 
mighty God, whom he sees crushing in His omnipotent 
movement every idol of his soul's affection. It is true 
the conscience will not condemn God as it condemns the 
fellow-man who injures him ; but the hatred which is en- 
tirely independent of this faculty will exist none the less. 

We state a third argument. 

III. The carnal mind hates the mercy of God. Here 
we seem to be in even more glaring inconsistency with 
consciousness than in any former assertion. But men 
have deceived themselves in regard to what they really 
were conscious of on other subjects ; and a closer atten- 
tion may discover an illusion here. It might be thought 
at first glance, that the very selfishness which we charge 
on man would make him love a merciful God. We ask 
attention to facts which bear on this subject 5 the facts of 
history, and the facts of consciousness. If the mercy of 
God consisted in the mere direct gratification of the 
wants of men, our position were then false. And this 
vague notion is wonderfully prevalent in the world ; but 
it is infinitely removed from the sublime and holy attri- 
bute called mercy in the Scriptures. If we might attempt 
a Scriptural definition of it in part, we should say, it is 
the kindness of God to men introducing the means of 
bringing them to holiness, forgiveness and heaven. And 
there is the offensive aspect of all its manifestations ; its 
powers and riches are all exerted to make man holy, that 
he may be truly and for ever happy. It was mercy that 
bowed the listening ear to Abel's prayer and smiled pro- 



28 SERMON I. 

pitiously on his sacrifice ; it was grace that taught and 
inclined him to make the acceptable offering. What was 
the effect of that display of grace to fallen manl It 
kindled the passions of hell in the bosom of Cain, and 
the hatred which could find no vent toward the God of 
mercy fell in murderous stroke upon an innocent brother. 
That mercy promised to exalt Joseph even above all that 
his brethren or father had attained. It excited the mur- 
derous purpose of his brethren, even to the desperate ex- 
tent of defeating the very purposes of the Almighty. The 
Israelites were led out of Egypt in mercy ; but because 
every thing was not arranged to their wishes, the very 
plans and achievements and instruments of that mercy 
perpetually aroused their wrath. The prophets were sent 
in mercy 5 but these were stoned and sawn asunder and 
driven to dwell with wild beasts. At last the Son of God 
came the Messenger of mercy. From the cradle to the 
tomb He drew forth the rage and malice of men. His 
doctrines, His conduct, His very exertions of merciful 
power continually drew upon Him the most bitter and 
desperate hatred. What more can be needed than the 
narrative of the four Evangelists, to establish the general 
fact concerning the carnal mind, that it hates even the 
mercy of God % Look at the history of that eventful pe- 
riod, in which an experiment was made on human nature j 
an experiment to us, not to God, for He knew what was 
in man. It is true that we call the men of that day proud, 
hypocritical, unbelieving Jews and Pharisees : but they 
were men 5 they had the same carnal mind which has 
existed in all ages, and still exists, however varied its 
form and outward bearing. There lived at that same 
period Herod and Jesus j the one was an obscene, blood- 
thirsty tyrant, a cruel extortioner — the other was a pure, 
mild and modest philanthropist. The one filled the land 
of Israel with the instruments of his extortion, with blood 



MAN S NATURAL ENMITY TO GOD. 29 

and tears — the other was seen in the places of poverty 
and amid the sad children of affliction, wiping the tear 
from sorrow's eye and healing its broken heart. The 
one was tolerated ; but the other was the object of a 
relentless persecution, which never let down its watchful 
malignity until it had heard His death-groans and seen 
His life-blood flow beneath its stroke. This was indeed 
the highest proof that man could give of his hatred to 
God, even when he displayed nothing but his unmingled 
mercy ; but it was not the last. The ascended Redeemer 
continued the exercise of that goodness in the communi- 
cation of the sanctifying Spirit. When the disciples were 
met to pray for this display of that goodness, suddenly the 
Spirit came upon them ; and from that hour began their 
unparalleled career of beneficent miracles and of persua- 
sive presentation of the offers of eternal life. Wherever 
they went, the presence and power of the Spirit of God 
were felt. But his reception was the same as that of the 
Son of God ; cities were filled with tumult and uproar 
whenever the Divine Spirit alighted, so that the standing 
title of the apostles was — " the men that have turned the 
world upside down." The Spirit of God did not assume 
a visible form, which could become the immediate object 
of men's hatred ; but he was seen and heard in the acts 
and words of the apostles. And Paul declares to us, that 
mobs and stonings, revilings, stripes and imprisonment 
were his rewards everywhere for fulfilling God's errand 
of mercy to his fellow-men. But we leave the facts of 
ancient history for those of our day, and the experience 
of other men for that which we cannot doubt nor deny 
as constituting apart of our personal moral history. We 
assert nothing here, but propose such inquiries and sug- 
gestions as may expose this very hatred of God's mercy, 
in hearts which would tremble to admit the awful conclu- 
sion, while they cannot deny the facts from which it was 

4 



30 SERMON I. 

drawn. Some may recollect an opposition to the gra- 
cious influences of the Spirit of God in other persons, 
and some an opposition to those influences in themselves. 
The Saviour said He had come to divide households and 
to put a sword between friends. He came to lead men 
to holiness. But when that gracious work is accom- 
plished, it is bringing into the midst of the social and 
domestic mass a new and incongenial element ; and like 
a change in the electrical condition of bodies, the strong- 
est revulsions are sometimes the consequence. The in- 
fluences of the grace of God may be sudden, and the de- 
cisive changes in the feeling and deportment of individ- 
uals often call forth the strong disapprobation of friends. 
It may be, indeed, that this disapprobation shall attach 
itself to some of the human imperfection, which mingles 
with this new form of character : but after all, its real 
origin is in the discovery of the direct and merciful in- 
fluences of the Spirit of God upon the heart. The rela- 
tions of life are such, that the religious principles of one 
person may very greatly interfere with the schemes of 
profit or pleasure formed by another ; and these religious 
principles are the fruits of God's mercy. But the carnal 
mind, thwarted and checked, feels a hatred of those prin- 
ciples, and thus of the mercy which caused them. This 
hatred to the religious principles and character of an- 
other comes up in a thousand shapes ; but however it 
comes, it shows this fact conclusively, that the carnal 
mind hates the movements of the Divine mercy, as inter- 
fering with its plans and pleasures. Whoever feels the 
risings of contempt or opposition towards the strict reli- 
gious principle or elevated religious sentiment manifested 
by another, shows that he hates the grace of God. But 
sometimes that grace comes yet nearer, and touches our 
own hearts to wake them from their fatal slumbers. The 
startled conscience begins to take a review of life under 



man's natural enmity to god. 31 

a new light and a new impulse. The past is condemned 
■ — the present is condemned — the future is appalling — 
inward, upward, backward, onward, whichever way its 
keen glance is turned, the record of guilt and the threat 
of judgment are beheld. This is painful; but it ought to 
be felt by every child of Adam, and it ought to be wel- 
comed, provided it lead us to Christ as the Author of par- 
don and peace. It ought to be welcomed, for it is the 
visit of the Spirit of mercy to our guilty bosoms \ it is, in 
fact, the last effort of mercy for our redemption. That 
renovated power of conscience is from the blessed Spirit. 
But how is it treated \ We have reason to fear, that the 
greater part who hear the Gospel, dread and detest those 
very feelings and conditions of the mind. Who has not 
shrunk from the keen pressure of the truth, beneath some 
faithful Spirit-taught messenger of God % who has not 
dreaded the interview of the faithful Christian friend, 
who, it was known, would urge to repentance and holi- 
ness 1 who has not turned away from his Bible as too 
dull, too gloomy, too reproving 1 who has not banished 
the oft-rising reflections upon the guilt and danger of the 
present condition of the soul 1 who has not run away 
from himself and the secret place of prayer to join the 
thoughtless throng 1 But in all this the heart discloses 
its opposition to that Infinite mercy that fain would save 
it, to that mercy that paid the debt for the soul, and then 
sends the Holy Spirit to deliver the deluded and unwil- 
ling captive. Hearer ! God has no other mercy than a 
holy mercy; no other merciful treatment of thee than to 
make thee holy. If this please thee not, it is because 
thou hast the carnal mind which hates God. 

This doctrine stands among those fearful and painful 
truths, the belief of which is most important, because 
fundamental to all true repentance and faith in the Gos- 
pel. God has besought man to become reconciled to 



32 SERMON I. 

Him ; but the appropriateness and tenderness of that en- 
treaty are seen only by him, who recognises himself to 
be at enmity with God. Every man would fain know 
how he can secure his immortal happiness ; and yet the 
greater part shrink from the contemplation and belief of 
the fact that man needs salvation as a sinner', conversion 
as an enemy of God and holiness, pardon and reconcilia- 
tion as a rebel against the Divine government. " Not the 
whole, but the sick, need a physician," is a simple truth, 
but one involving some most important considerations. 
The Saviour would by it exhibit the necessity of a dis- 
tinct and deep impression of our dangerous and painful 
condition, in order to prepare us to understand and to 
appreciate the Gospel. The object of this discourse is 
to describe the fearful feature of this sickness, to induce 
the personal conviction on the mind — I am sick, and my 
malady is sin — I am sick, not by misfortune, but by guilty 
and persevering choice. I love the creature supremely, 
and consequently must find myself opposed to God sooner 
or later. It is true I am not at present conscious of any 
such enmity — but I see it in the future. Changes in my 
circumstances must soon occur ; and occurring, must 
show me in perfect and perpetual hostility to Jehovah. I 
have flattered myself to believe that my heart is good \ 
but I am convinced, that in the sight of God nothing can 
be truly good in that heart which hates Him. I have 
looked with horror on the wickedness of other men ; but 
now I see that other men have surpassed me in the degree 
of wickedness, not differed from me in the nature of their 
heart. They have been cruel to men, because they had 
gone so far as to despise the very image of the God whom 
they hated. I have hated the bitterness and cruelty of 
persecutions on account of religion, but these have been 
made thus bitter only by the increased degree of that 
very opposition to God which I indulge in my heart. 



33 

Others have given themselves to excessive sensuality, 
and I have despised them for it ; but now I see that they 
had only matured that love of created good, which con- 
stitutes the leading feature of my character. My pride 
is wounded at the discovery j but it is truth, and I can 
close my eyes no longer against it. The Bible insists on 
the necessity of conversion in the case of every human 
being. Now I see that I must be born again. My enmity 
to God arises from my supreme attachment to the crea- 
ture good ; and it can cease only when I cease to enter- 
tain the carnal mind. Here is the deliverance I need, 
and here is my dependence on the risen Saviour. It is 
only by the power of His Spirit that my chains can be 
broken ; by Him my heart must be changed j by His 
sweet power my enmity turned to love. 

But the hearer may fail to receive such convictions 
from this discourse, because the argument turning upon 
individual experience, may have failed of resemblance to 
his personal consciousness. It must then remain with 
him either to reject the declaration of God, or to look 
more closely at his own mental exercise, and see if he 
cannot confirm the truth of the Scriptures from them. 

REMARKS. 

1. The supreme love of the creature is a dreadful 
evil. 

This is the precise state of mind indicated by the 
phrase, "the carnal mind." In many of its forms it now 
appears, to him who looks only on the outward appear- 
ance, very innocent, and often even amiable. But here 
we see its real character and its terrific consequences. It 
has these two dreadful issues. First, it makes it impos- 
sible that you can enter heaven. In heaven they love God 
supremely — you love the creature supremely. In heaven 
they have no will nor plans independent of God's, but 

4* 



34< SERMON I. 

every thing is in sweet, intelligent, cordial submission to 
His will. " The carnal mind is enmity against God, is 
not subject to His law, neither indeed can be." Then it 
cannot enter heaven. 

Another consequence of the carnal mind is, that it 
arrays its possessor against the government; plans, and 
will of God. There can be no question as to which party 
must yield. God's is the strongest arm ; His is the cause 
of righteousness. The conscience of every creature must 
pronounce you w r rong, and must vindicate God in your 
condemnation. Yes, you must perish remaining in that 
state of mind. God's potent arm must roll forward the 
wheels of His providence. If you lay your idols in their 
path, your idols will be crushed — if you set yourselves in 
opposition to that mighty movement, you must perish. 
Then will He "laugh at your calamity, and mock when 
your fear cometh." 

2. " Except a man be born again he cannot see the 
kingdom of God." "Marvel not that I say unto you, Ye 
must be born again." The carnal mind must be put away. 
But where shall one begin 1 At the cross of Christ; 
renounce the world in thine heart, and cast thyself on 
Christ. 

The conquest of the carnal mind is not the work of a 
moment ; it is the labour of life. But there must be a 
moment in which it begins ; that moment should be now. 
There is a spot of earth, occupying which, you should 
give yourself for healing into the hands of the great Phy- 
sician. That spot you occupy now. 



OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 35 



SERMON II. 



OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 



"7 have written unto you, Young Men, because ye are 
strong" — 1 John ii. 14. 

The venerable writer of this epistle had passed through 
the five stages of human existence : infancy, childhood, 
youth, manhood, and old age. Time had now silvered 
his locks, and given its mellow tints to a character which 
even in his earliest manhood had secured to him the title 
of "the beloved disciple." There is, through the Avhole 
of this letter, a vein of exquisite simplicity and tender- 
ness. He looked back to the period of youth, and re- 
membered how critical and important a season it had 
been to him. By the grace of God, his seed time had 
been rightly employed, and he was now reaping a golden 
harvest of serenity, intelligence, the confidence of good 
men, usefulness, and a perfect assurance of eternal bless- 
edness. He had leaned upon the Saviour's bosom ; he 
had followed him the most closely in the hour of peril ; 
and he was now finding in rich experience that such was 
the best preparation a young man could make for the sober 
realities of age and for an approaching eternity. Hence 
his counsels were turned to young men. I have written 
unto you, young men, because, ye are strong. His refer- 
ence is not to the physical, but mental vigour of youth. 
Mental strength is a merciful gift of God, which may be 
wasted on trifles ; or perverted to evil j or used for great 



36 



SERMON II. 



and good purposes. It is the power which God has im»~ 
parted to form our own character, and to control the cha- 
racter and destinies of others. In reference to the sub- 
ject before us, we are not called upon to examine the 
manner or time in which this strength is imparted from 
our beneficent and merciful Creator. It is strength, hu- 
man strength, and of course derived strength, to which 
the apostle alludes. The praise and gratitude belong to 
God who gives it. To man belong the privilege and the 
responsibility of possessing it. Let our attention then be 
first directed to those great objects which the young should 
distinctly and constantly propose to themselves as the 
glorious achievements for which, by the energy, the fresh- 
ness, the enthusiasm of their age they are so peculiarly 
qualified. We consider, 

I. The noblest objects of youthful desire and pursuit. 

i. Personal improvement. I mean that every young 
man should aim at becoming as truly good and excellent 
as he can be. I speak not now of his becoming great. 
That we will consider presently. It is painful to discover 
how few of the young men of Christian countries take a 
sufficiently elevated view of themselves, as endowed with 
the noblest, though perverted creature powers. One 
looks upon himself in no higher light than as a mint for 
the coining of money. If he can learn the great art of 
accumulating property, he has reached the summit of hu- 
man excellence. Multitudes are satisfied with the mere 
training of their muscular powers in some mechanic art, 
to the utter neglect of all the mighty powers of intellect 
and all the finer sentiments and affections of the heart. 
It is painful to know that every youth has a depraved 
heart, and still more so to observe that so few have any 
desire to rectify the moral derangement, and to restore 
to the soul the sweet, harmonious, balanced exercise of 
its powers. Nay, some have even yielded themselves to 



OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 37 

the gratification of every depraved desire and feeling ; 
restrained only by a regard to their reputation. They 
look upon the present life, not as probationary and disci- 
plinary, and preparatory to a better ; but as the golden 
time for the indulgence of all the lower propensities of the 
mind. My proposal to the young before me is — that they 
look upon the immortal mind within, as their noblest pos- 
session ; and upon the training of that, under the blessing 
of God, to piety and virtue as their most important em- 
ployment. It is that part of your nature which places 
you but little below the angels. It is upon the proper em- 
ployment of its powers, that your happiness here and your 
blessedness hereafter entirely depend. Your moral con- 
dition is a peculiarity in the history of God's empire. 
Angels before you have fallen from their high estate ; 
but, unlike you, they have no Mediator with God. They 
have no hope of pardon. Like you, they are perpetually 
disturbing and distracting the delicate harmony of their 
moral powers. But, unlike you, they are under no dis- 
pensation of grace. No sweet, overwhelming views of 
the benignity and mercy of their offended Creator shines 
upon their dreary, despairing souls. While Memory in- 
cessantly pourtrays the scenes of former glory and happi- 
ness, the finger of Hope never points them to eminences 
of bliss and personal perfection which may be attained. 
To you, young friends, to you all this pertains. There is 
a provision in the mercy of God, not only for the pardon 
of the penitent, but also for the ensuring of success to 
them who by patient continuance in well doing, seek for 
honour, and glory, and immortality. Who that has once 
conceived aught of the primitive condition of man, or of 
angelic purity, does not see that the world within him 
has lost its balancing power 1 Disorder and discord have 
usurped the place of order and harmony. God was once 
the centre of all the social system, and love its attractive 



38 SERMON II. 

power. Then the ereated soul moved in its own sphere 
in harmony with the universe. Then God was its light 
and its life. But now the centripetal power of love is lost 
from the soul, and its centrifugal energies are driving the 
poor wandering star into the "blackness of darkness" eter- 
nal. God is no longer its centre. And hence, where once 
were verdant bloomings, the cold and barrenness of polar 
regions are seen and felt. Where the love of God exists 
not, there must be confusion, corruption, and death. 
Where self is the centre of attraction, the primitive order 
is destroyed, and what should have produced life and 
blessedness, must result in misery and death. Who that 
knows himself, can refuse the application of these remarks 
to himself? Who can say — I am right — I am clean — I 
am prepared without change to stand before the throne of 
God — this delicate machinery has never been disturbed, 
its balance-wheel never failed % Man's moral depravity 
consists in his perverted affections, and in the voluntary 
blindness of his conscience and the feebleness of its di- 
recting power. The conscience was given to show us when 
and how far our desires and affections may be properly 
gratified. We are supremely selfish, when all our choices, 
purposes, and actions tend only to our own gratification. 
We are ungodly when our affections rest supremely on 
the creatures of God. Both these conditions of the mind 
an enlightened conscience would check and reprove. 
But where it does not, there it is blind, and voluntarily 
blind, because God has thrown around us light sufficient 
to guide our steps. The conscience is feeble when, with 
what light we do possess, it cannot restrain the selfish de- 
sires and the idolatrous affections, from controlling the 
conduct and forming the character. This description 
embraces two great classes ; first, the creature of passion. 
When he does any thing, it is because he feels a strong 
impulse to do it j consequently that which ought to stand 



OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 39 

eagle-eyed between the will, and every impulse excited 
by external objects, is either blind, or dumb and power- 
less. It either sees no wrong, or is weary of speaking 
the language of remonstrance, or it is no longer the bal- 
ancing power, determining which impulse shall prevail, 
and which shall not. 

This description includes also the man of earthly af- 
fections. He may be benevolent, and just, and true to 
man, because these are either to a certain extent consti- 
tutional propensities, like hunger and thirst, or are adopt- 
ed as adapted to promote temporal happiness. He cannot 
see that he is selfish, for he is kind, upright, and faithful. 
But he may easily see that he is ungodly ; by which is 
meant, his affections embrace not God. He is just, but 
not towards the Creator, whom he thus defrauds of his 
affections and of all his powers 5 affectionate, but not 
towards God ; grateful, but not to the Man of Calvary, 
the God incarnate. This is moral derangement, and it 
must be rectified. It should be commenced immediately, 
under the gracious influence of that Spirit who now 
comes forth from the mediatorial Prince of Life, to raise 
and restore ruined man. The affections must embrace 
God supremely in their wide scope. Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. 
To him we must be reconciled in Christ, and of him ob- 
tain forgiveness. Conscience must become the director 
of actions and of volitions, under the guidance of the spirit 
and word of Christ. Those pernicious habits of sensu- 
ality which many have formed; those habits of self-will 
which all have formed ; those habits of speaking and act- 
ing from passion, impulse, or desire, regardless of the 
moral right or wrong, must all be changed. From the 
pride which originates in selfishness and is sustained by 
moral blindness, you must come to a perpetual abiding in 
that holy and glorious presence which bows to heaven's 



40 SERMON II. 

pavement the tallest angels. From all that grovelling ab- 
sorption in the things of a probationary state, which were 
meant not for the perfection of the soul in love, but for 
its discipline in penitence, and humility, and self-govern- 
ment, you must set your affections on things above, 
where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. ' In a word, 
you must undertake the training of a blessed spirit for the 
society and bliss of those who have washed their robes 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. We 
propose, 

ii. The Work of Philanthropy ; that you do good to the 
extent of your power. Who is the greatest man that ever 
lived \ 1 speak of any that may be, or that was designed 
in the Providence of God to be a model for the race. It 
is blasphemy to rank in true moral greatness, that great-' 
ness which is the legitimate object of human ambition, 
any above Jesus of Nazareth ! Say not he is too far re- 
moved to be our model. As a man, he was but a man, a 
perfect man made in the likeness of sinful flesh ; and the 
direction to us is " that the same mind be in us which was 
also in him." True greatness, as exhibited by him, is to 
live and consecrate the time and powers to higher objects 
than men generally pursue ; and in the pursuit of those 
objects to pass by the indulgence of the desires and feel- 
ings which constitute the happiness of most men. It was 
a fine specimen of the moral sublime, when Jesus sat 
weary and hungry at the well of Jacob, and said, " My 
meat and drink is to do the will of him that sent me." It 
was said, in view of the ignorant and perishing souls 
then flocking to him from the city. It should never have 
been for one moment a question with any human being, 
whether there is truly any greater object for which we 
can live, than that for which he lived. The only point 
which it might have seemed presumption to believe, is 
that we are permitted to engage in the same lofty enter- 



OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 41 

prise ; that it is not enough for heaven's mercy to call us 
to pardon and peace and the hope of heaven 5 but even to 
the very work which tasked all the human energies of the 
Redeemer, and which illustrated all his Divine perfec- 
tions. Yes ! my young friends, you are called to become 
philanthropists. The sound of the trumpet is heard on 
high, — to arms ! to arms ! but it comes from the Captain 
of Salvation, the Prince of Peace. It is to a bloodless 
field — "to contend not with flesh and blood, but with 
principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in 
high places." The rider upon the White Horse goes not 
forth alone against the enemies of God and man. The 
victors who are yet to walk in the triumphal procession 
with palm leaves in their hands are the dwellers upon 
earth ; some of them doubtless before me. Their weapons 
are the weapons of light, wielded in the cause of God and 
humanity. But what are the objects of this moral war- 
fare 1 They are — to deliver the prey from the spoiler — 
to burst open the prison doors and proclaim liberty to the 
captives. You are called to sigh and weep in the spirit 
of a Howard, — nay the spirit of Howard's Saviour — over 
the degradation and wide-spread misery of a race which 
has apostatized from God in its affections and its allegi- 
ance. We prepose to you to become great men in the 
sight of God, of angels, and of the good on earth. And 
if we have observed aright, it is hastening to this, — that 
the standard of greatness is undergoing a change ; that 
to be a great man in the estimation even of the world, 
will require that he to whom the distinction is awarded 
shall exercise the moral and benevolent feelings, and not 
the selfish feelings, as his great impelling power 5 his 
theatre shall be the scenes of actual wretchedness and 
moral degradation ; in his track shall be found the igno- 
rant enlightened, the captive exulting in his freedom, the 
heart of the orphan gladdened, the cause of justice and 

5 



42 SERMON II. 

truth established, the glory of God promoted. Oh ! if 
you desire fame, let it be the fame of leaving the human 
family better and happier than you found it ; if your ear 
must drink in praise, let it be the blessing of him that was 
ready to peiish ; let your monuments be the rich garden 
spots of moral beauty and fruitfulness, reclaimed from the 
waste wilderness. Help to increase the facilities for edu- 
cating the mind of man — to improve the modes of educa- 
ting — to spread these facilities till they have benefited 
every member of the vast brotherhood of man. Let your 
party in politics be the great party whose aim is to have 
all men, under every government and any administration, 
govern themselves by the laws of God. Let every moral 
reformation receive from your hand an impulse and a hap- 
py guidance, which, but for you, it would never have re- 
ceived. Lift on these shores of the great ocean of life 
more of these moral light-houses, which shall save from 
temporal and eternal destruction the souls of men. Let 
a light be kindled that shall continue to burn when you 
are dead. If it is the light of truth, others will tend it, 
and trim it, and feed it. It will continue to burn with in- 
creasing strength and clearness, scattering from a wider 
and yet wider region the midnight darkness ; enlighten- 
ing and cheering man on his way to eternity, even to the 
day when the sun shall be blotted out ; and then it will 
still burn and mingle its rays with the glories of the ce- 
lestial city. Young men, I speak to you, because all this 
glory may be yours. Yes ! under the merciful adminis- 
tration of Jesus Christ, you may become both good and 
great. But if we should succeed to stir up any strong 
desires in your minds, let us not leave you deceived by a 
false inference, that all this is reached by an impulse, a 
wish, and a resolution. To attain the high character of a 
practical, efficient philanthropist, requires much personal 
cultivation, much well digested knowledge and experi- 






OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 43 

ence ; and these to be but qualifications, not substitutes, 
for activity. And with the greater part, these attainments 
are to be the reward of efforts almost unaided by man. 
One child in ten thousand is blessed Avith a happy educa- 
tion. A mother, or, as by a miracle, some competent 
substitute has watched over the first developement and 
expansion of the powers. The understanding had been 
rightly disciplined and well informed ; the exuberant feel- 
ings have been chastened ; the finer sensibilities cultiva- 
ted j the soul formed to manliness, to piety, and practical 
wisdom. Oh ! these instances are rare. Most of the 
good who have adorned the world, and of the truly great 
who have blessed it, have, under heaven's favour, made 
themselves. They have grappled with the evil habits of 
youth ; they have struggled against the influence of evil 
companions, and of a depraved public sentiment ; they 
have feared, and wept, and prayed, and studied under dis- 
couragements, which, contemplated in the mass, would 
have appalled them. All this we know. And yet with 
all this in view, we urge you to become good and great 
men. This will require you to become truly pious men. 
This is the first element of true greatness ; because it 
is the only state in which the moral powers are rightly 
exercised. Sin is the only truly despicable object in the 
sight of God. And piety is its antagonist and opposite 
principle. All other greatness only removes you the far* 
ther from God's esteem and the respect of angels. It 
only lifts you higher, that you may sink the deeper in 
eternal disgrace. Shun that false and phantom greatness 
which lures you to eternal ruin. He is not a great man 
who depends on any thing physical, or any thing external 
for his greatness. Greatness is not in reputation, but in 
character. He is not truly great, who does not meet the 
obligations which arise from all his relations, and chiefly 
those to God. That is not greatness, which will not make 



44 SERMON II. 

one illustrious at the judgment day, and respected in 
heaven. He is not a great man who does not enjoy the 
blessing of God. Moses was truly so. Select one exhi- 
bition of it : when the cloud of God's wrath was gathered 
over the guilty children of Israel, it was not learning, nor 
military talents, nor political sagacity, that could save 
them \ it was prayer. This is power, and Moses pos- 
sessed it. This is greatness, and Moses possessed it. 
Young men ; become men of prayer. The eternal and 
wise God changed the name of Jacob to that of Prince of 
God, why 1 because he had native mental power, or great 
intellectual acquirements 1 No ; but because he had 
power with man, and power to prevail with God in prayer. 
Ah! that is the highest style of eloquence which per- 
suades God. Get it, young men, in the school of Christ ; 
get it as patriots, for your country's sake j get it as re- 
formers of a sinful world. It is idle to look or labour for 
the renovation of the frame- work of society, unless you 
renovate the hearts of men ; and it is vain to hope for 
that, without the aid of God's Holy Spirit. And his in- 
fluences will be sent upon others in answer to our prayers. 
Be men of prayer. It is the best attainment of a patriot 
and of a philanthropist. And to attempt the radical reno- 
vation of society, independently of the agency of God's 
Spirit, which he has promised to give in answer to prayer, 
is moral quackery. 

To be useful requires — a cultivated mind. This con- 
sists in two things — the proper discipline of the mental 
faculties, and a knowledge of man, of the physical world 
which surrounds him, and of the God in whom he lives 
and moves. To be an efficient philanthropist you must 
be possessed of a well cultivated mind. We propose to 
this eminence no royal road. The men who have reached 
it, have toiled and fainted, and again toiled, and again 
been discouraged, They that reap in great joy and bear 



OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 45 

home their sheaves with shouting from this field, are 
they who carried forth their precious seed and scattered 
it with tears. Yes, the great Philanthropist himself was 
not exempt from this universal law. Gethsemane and 
Calvary lifted their terrific barriers between him and the 
end of his labours. To be philanthropists you must be- 
come students. No branch of knowledge will be out of 
place, while some will be more important than others. 
The time and the occasion will not allow an enumeration 
of those processes of mental discipline, and those branches 
of knowledge which you may profitably pursue for this 
great purpose. It may suffice to say — that the intellect- 
ual faculties which you should train, and the habits you 
should form, are — reflection — attention — arrangement of 
facts under principles — activity — judgment ; — and if I 
should recommend any books to those who wish to com- 
mence, they would be Dr. Abercrombie's two little w r orks 
on the intellectual and moral faculties. 

But besides mental strength and correct intellectual 
and moral habits, you must be acquainted with facts and 
principles. 

God is the first great object of knowledge. You are 
his — in his world — apostacy from him is man's misery — 
reconciliation to him is our only salvation ; therefore the 
Bible is the first book in a human library ; because on 
each of these points it throws alight which no other can 
furnish. There never was in modern days a great efficient 
public philanthropist who achieved much for the moral 
renovation of mankind, whose principles were not formed 
by the Bible. 

As you are to operate upon man, you cannot know 
him too intimately. Your sources of knowledge are the 
Bible — Observation, Introspection, and History. 

Physical science should be one branch of your studies. 
We recommend a cultivated taste j the habit of writing, 

5* 



46 sermon n. 

speaking, an d c onver sing properly and impr e ssively » You 
should obtain right views of the object of our position in this 
world, and of the true value of time, property, and every oth- 
er means of influence. It requires, finally — a well-balanced 
mind. By which is meant one that is neither indolent nor 
idly active, nor injuriously active. One which is neither in- 
sensible to the sufferings of man, nor so sensitive as to be 
unfitted for action, nor yet driven to act blindly and inju- 
diciously. One which is not wavering on great practical 
principles, nor yet rash in forming a judgment and obstinate 
in maintaining it ; but one which looks calmly at a subject 
on every side, under a solemn sense of responsibility to 
posterity and to God ; and then dares to believe what is 
true and to proclaim it on every suitable occasion. One 
who is willing to hear counsel, to profit by advice, and yet 
independent of personal consequences, if the cause of truth 
and human happiness requires sacrifice. We may not 
now illustrate each of these ; but we may take one and 
expand it a little. That independence which you must 
acquire in order that you may become an efficient benefac- 
tor to your race, has been impressively exhibited by 
many who have gone before you in this noble career. 
That the condition of the human race is improving on 
the whole, is evident. There is an advance in parts of 
the world, in science, and in the arts, which make matter 
subservient to mind, in morals, in religious science, in 
jurisprudence, and in the international law. For all these 
advances we are indebted to the divine mercy. But the 
instruments God was pleased to employ, were men who 
had by much cultivation become fitted for their sphere ; 
and then, with singular firmness and independence, moved 
forward in the work of reformation. 

Polytheism was the national, the court religion of 
Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Persia. Some bold spirits 
must have dared to investigate whether public sentiment 



OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 47 

was right on this point. And after investigating, some- 
thing more was required. There must have been a wise 
selection of the modes of publishing the truth and of op- 
posing the popular error. Yes, and there must have been 
an utter abandonment of the public favour, an exposure 
even of life which none but an elevated mind will consid- 
erately incur in view of a great object of public welfare. 
Need I mention as high on this list, Isaiah, the sublime 
reprover of idolatry, and all the prophets of the Old 
Testament, who were stoned, burned, and sawn asunder % 
— to them and their firmness are we indebted for our con- 
ceptions of the unity of God and of the infinite majesty 
and glory of his name. Judaism was the state religion 
which opposed the introduction of Christianity. We in- 
herit the latter as our richest legacy — but it cost other 
blood besides that of its great Author. Eead the lives 
of its first preachers and professors, for an illustration of 
that decision and independence which is demanded of the 
benefactors of our race. To whom are we indebted for 
the benefits of the reformation ; and to what traits in the 
characters of the reformers 1 You might even find in the 
history of physical science specimens of the same. Such 
was Copernicus, whose knowledge and boldness called 
the wrath of the inquisitorial fathers upon him. We 
have here urged you not merely to become great men ; 
but what needs a more powerful stimulus ; to go through 
the severe process of preparation for it. Were we thus 
to urge little children, our argument and appeal would 
fail alike of being understood and felt. And so with 
men in the maturity of life, fixed in the inflexibility of 
their intellectual and moral habits. But I have spoken 
unto you young men, because ye are strong. And it now 
remains, after this exhibition of the great objects to 
which your mental strength must be directed, to observe, 
II. That youth is the period of life in which their pur- 
suit must be commenced. 



48 SERMON II. 

1. Youth has its peculiar advantages for the formation 
of character. The periods of human life may be variously 
divided for various purposes. The body runs through 
the seasons of helplessness and sprightliness, vigour and 
decrepitude. The intellect has sometimes two periods, 
generally three. The mind is at first shut up ; it then 
expands ; and if neglected, it runs back again to imbe- 
cility. But if rightly treated, the mind would lift its pin- 
ions with growing strength until the mortal coil is dropped. 
Except in cases of disease, its vigour would remain unim- 
paired if not neglected. In respect, therefore, to intel- 
lectual improvement, youth is the important time of form- 
ing those habits which cannot afterwards be formed when 
the active duties of life rush upon man to the extent of a 
total absorption of time and thought. But this sentiment 
is most emphatically true, as we observe the peculiarity 
of man's moral structure. With regard to character, in- 
fancy is the period of mental torpor. Then comes the 
season of childhood, in which propensities are first devel- 
oped ; the imitative power is brought into exercise ) but 
the conscience is feeble, and its discernment of right and 
wrong exceedingly limited. Now the habits of animal 
indulgence are formed, without scarcely an understand- 
ing that man must live for higher ends. Now the habits 
of lying, fraud, pilfering, meanness, are formed, with 
scarcely a whisper from the inward monitor, and with 
almost no conception of a holy and all-seeing Judge, and 
a future retribution. Such, as matters of fact, are the 
disadvantages under which man commences the formation 
of character ; even at the very period when the lowest pro- 
pensities have the strongest play ; and when his own 
moral checks are the feeblest. Not that children have 
no conscience. Not that they are incapable of feeling 
the generous impulses of gratitude and sympathy. But 
this is emphatically the period when they must be gov- 
erned and instructed by others. The plastic hand of edu- 



OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 49 

cation must now do for them what nature has not done, 
and what they cannot do for themselves. But you pass 
from childhood to the third stage of man's moral history. 
Here he appears with his propensities to animal gratifica- 
tion — the strongest mental bias ; his imagination the wild- 
est, and yet most commanding intellectual faculty. But 
with all this, he has some experience of the evils of trans- 
gression ; the sense of right and wrong has become 
formed. He is now capable of choosing his gratifications 
in view of all the relations he sustains to God and man in 
time and eternity, of his obligations, and of the conse- 
quences to himself and others. The appetites and pas- 
sions are strong ; but they have not the fearful strength 
of habit long matured. Evil examples are powerful. But 
conscience, as it were new-born, is vigorous and power- 
ful too. Eesolution is a power which has not yet been 
overcome, and it lives enwrapped in its giant strength 
within the youthful bosom. The sense of shame is a pow- 
erful barrier against vice. The finer feelings of the heart 
not yet rendered callous, plead against it. Here is the 
interesting period of youth. The child was the creature 
of impulse, of sympathy, of imitation, of stubbornness 
perhaps, but not of decision. This has exceptions ; yet 
it is generally true. But now appears the youth on the 
stage of probation, ushered amid scenes and companions, 
whose moral bearings he just begins to comprehend. To 
him is committed, in a few short years, to form the char- 
acter of one man for life, and deeply to affect the desti- 
nies of a multitude more. That season passes. He goes 
on from the age of twenty-five to that of thirty years ; 
and it is generally then determined what character he 
will bear through life, and in what sphere of moral influ- 
ence he will move. 

If he has yielded to sensual desires, to meanness, 
fraud, sordid gratification ; if he has stooped from the 



50 SERMON II. 

lofty aspirings after holiness and immortal glory at the 
hands of his Redeemer; he has become weak in the chains 
of a self-imposed slavery. And every fitful struggle only 
proves their iron strength. It was evidently this moral 
strength to which the Apostle alluded, for he says, — " Ye 
are strong, and have overcome the wicked one." Here 
was the proof of their strength, that with the moral en- 
ergy grace had imparted, they had overcome the great 
enemy, in whom is concentrated all moral evil. Young 
men, ye are strong to effect this great object committed 
to man, — the formation of character, — strong to grapple 
with the moral and spiritual foes that shoot with the 
arrows of contempt, or the deadlier weapons of flattery j 
that decoy where they cannot beat down. 

2. Youth is the most favourable season to commence the 
preparation for a life of elevated philanthropy. 

Imagine this entire assembly to be aroused by the 
Spirit of God, in view of the importance of this subject, 
to an intense desire to commence the formation of those 
habits, and the acquisition of those attainments which 
should fit them to become extensively the benefactors of 
the world. The desire might burn like an inward fire. 
But what will it avail yonder aged man 1 He may sigh 
over the mistakes and moral blindness of his youth, over 
time and faculties wasted, over a life almost spent, and 
its greatest object left unaccomplished. It may prostrate 
his soul in penitence and contrition before God. And he 
may say, with soul-thrilling eloquence, young men, ye, ye 
are strong : but with me it is too late. Yours is the fire, 
and fervour, and force — yours the facility for forming 
new habits, which mark you as the favoured objects of 
these appeals. My summer is past, my harvest is ended. 
Yours, young men, is more than this ; your very position 
in society is that of strength. The wicked one is con- 
tending for the mastery with the Prince of Peace. The 



OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 51 

embattled hosts are on the field. The cruel regiments 
of Infidelity, Intemperance, Gambling, Licentiousness, 
are all, under their great leader, pressing their terrific 
conquests over human virtue and happiness. But it is 
with the young men of this generation to determine the 
condition of the war to the end of time. Your individual 
character and influence could do much. But what could 
not your united influence accomplish'? Let the young 
men desert the standards of Infidelity, Intemperance, 
Gambling, Profaneness, Sabbath desecration, and Un- 
cleanness ; and who will lift their banners of blood again, 
when the old drunkards and debauchees, and Gospel des- 
pisers, have passed away 1 Yours is the strength to beat 
down, in the present generation, the enemies of God and 
man, and to keep them low in at least the next. Yours 
it might be to train under yet better auspices, a still more 
efficient army for the Prince Emanuel. And although 
the little band here collected cannot do what belongs to 
the entire body of youth, yet the work must at some time 
begin somewhere, that every word which the Lord hath 
spoken may be established. 

But methinks I hear the tones of despondency, — the 
speaker forgets his commission ; many, with whom and 
for whom he came to plead, enjoy but limited opportuni- 
ties for mental cultivation. But here is a path stricken 
out, which requires all the time and all the opportunities 
afforded by a liberal education. He has surely forgotten 
the merchant's and mechanic's apprentice 1 No, young 
man, I have spoken thus even unto you; because with all 
the disadvantages of your situation for mental cultiva- 
tion, you are strong. And to strike a decisive blow at 
your discouragements, I would lay down the broad prop- 
osition, that there is no situation or employment in which 
it is proper for a young man to be, in which he may not 
become a good and a great man. You must breathe in 



52 SERMON II. 

the gospel principles, that it is neither family, nor prop- 
erty, nor profession, which forms real character, merit, 
nor respectability. Look not for honour to your profes- 
sion, but to your character. With regard to the forma- 
tion of a religious and moral character, surely you can 
complain of no special disadvantages. It is then the in- 
tellectual part of the training for which you think you 
have not time and opportunity. I admit that there are 
four particulars in which the liberally educated has the 
advantage. 

1. In the amount of time he can devote to mental im- 
provement. And yet there are some compensating cir- 
cumstances which you perhaps overlook. It is demon- 
strated beyond dispute from physiological science and 
observation, that muscular exercise which agreeably em- 
ploys the mind, is indispensable to the best cultivation of 
the entire man. Some of the first young men of America 
have utterly disqualified themselves for usefulness by a 
disproportioned exercise of the mind. And besides, if 
you are truly aroused to take firm hold on this great en- 
terprise of self-improvement, the probability is, that those 
hours which you can devote to it will be so much more 
profitably spent, that you will accomplish more real study 
than is done by the majority of college students. 

It is not the enrolment on the catalogue of a univer- 
sity, nor the residence within college walls, nor listening 
to professors' lectures, that makes the man. It depends, 
at last, on his own efforts how much he is benefited. If 
with a faithful attention to those interests of your em- 
ployer with which you are intrusted, and due attention 
to the particular branch of business you are learning, 
there is combined a habit of scrupulously saving time, of 
guarding the mind against every thing which interferes 
with its improvement, of conquering difficulties, and of 
persevering in the midst of discouragements, of still keep- 






OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 53 

ing the eye on a high mark, when all the circumstances 
in which you are placed are depressing; here is a moral 
training for philanthropic effort that is invaluable. You 
complain of the want of time. Where did Benjamin 
Franklin find it to form in his printing-office the philoso- 
pher and the statesman! Had we more Franklins in the 
shops we should have more in the senate chamber. The 
living names of great and good men who have surmounted 
the same difficulties are very numerous. Economy of 
time and system would accomplish for you what might 
now seem wonders. Another of your disadvantages is, 

2. The want of that collision of mind which Schools 
and Colleges afford. 

This is a real difficulty, and we will not look to you 
to remove it ; but I trust the day is not far distant when 
your fellow-citizens will see this subject in a right light, 
and assist you in the formation of such Societies for dis- 
cussion and composition as will greatly advance the de- 
velopment of your mental powers. And yet to show you 
what can be done among yourselves, with a little assist- 
ance from others, I refer you to the account of the Gas 
Light Company of Glasgow, as stated in the Penny Mag- 
azine, vol. xi. p. 50, American edition. 

3. You are in want of Professors or Teachers. I can 
only say now, bend down, dear youth, with all the ener- 
gies of your soul, to intellectual and moral improvement ; 
we will hail your advances, and welcome you as brothers. 
We will do more. I can almost pledge this community, 
they will yet furnish you with lectures, and with courses 
of instruction. Your evenings may be divided between 
the public worship of your God, private study, and the 
public lecture. You shall have higher attractions than 
the theatre, ball-room, or gambling-house can offer. 

4. And the remaining difficulty, is the want of books. Is 
that sol In this community are there youthful minds 



54 SERMON II. 

panting for knowledge, who cannot reach its precious 
fountain ; and that, for the want of a little of the property 
which God has so liberally bestowed upon us 1 No, 
young friends, this will not be the case long after this 
community shall have learned your necessities. Your 
cause is strong. It is the plea of want laid at the heart 
of patriotism and benevolence. It is not a cry for bread. 
It is the mind struggling through the mists of mental 
night, panting for light, thirsting for the living waters of 
knowledge. This Christian community need not many 
words to present your claim. They feel for you, for their 
country, for posterity, for the honour of their city. It shall 
not be said that the claim of an Institution formed for 
your intellectual and moral improvement, was presented 
in vain. In closing my remarks, again, I turn to you, 
young men. I have presented but one side of the subject. 
You are strong not only for good, but also for evil. You 
are strong constitutionally. But the greater your strength, 
the more critical your situation. Your vigour is but like 
steam in navigation, the impelling power ; it is not the 
helm. If you abandon yourself to blind impulse ; remem- 
ber life's stream is winding ; remember, how thickly it is 
underlaid with rocks and shoals. In coming up the 
Thames, they do not trust even an experienced master, 
but must employ a pilot who has studied every inch of 
the river. And dare you venture on the stream of time 
without an enlightened conscience for your pilot] If 
your helm be not vigilantly and strongly commanded by 
this only skilful, faithful guide, you must inevitably be 
wrecked. You are strong to undermine the pillars of 
social order. You may live yet many years, doing the 
work of death. There are two parties in morals in this 
community : on the one side are engaged the friends of 
public virtue and true religion ; on the other, the sus- 
tained of vice, of infidelity, of intemperance, and all forms 






OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 55 

of evil. "Where shall your strength be enlisted 1 If with 
Virtue and Godliness, let it be actively, efficiently em- 
ployed. Who dares devote the peculiar strength of youth 
to selfish purposes of any kind 1 When you may without 
extravagance anticipate becoming public benefactors, is 
it right to bury your powers 1 How can you determine in 
becoming a lawyer, physician, or mechanic, or merchant, 
to live for yourself? Are there not motives sufficiently 
powerful to induce you to live for the good of your race -1 
See how it is sunk in ignorance, in oppression, in sin. 
You may help to elevate it. Yes, you may help to purify 
and elevate the character of this whole empire, and make 
its influence yet more powerful and beneficial to the en- 
tire world. You live in a day of peculiar promise to the 
human race. There is a waking up of the human mind 
from the slumber of ages, and a startling of the human 
conscience from its long torpor, an intense curiosity and 
earnest anxiety for the word of God, are now heaving the 
mass of the pagan mind. They are calling to the sons 
of Britain and America to become cordial believers in 
thatgospel they so richly enjoy, — to enlist as Missiona- 
ries, to herald its joyful tidings to their waiting crowds. 
They call upon our educated youth to enlist all their 
genius and learning to illustrate the science of God and 
salvation. They call upon our mechanics to educate 
themselves to go forth as the pioneers of the arts which 
have flowed in the wake of Christianity. And did one 
poor fanatic, emerging from his murky cell, once rouse 
the chivalry of Europe to pour its wealth, its talent, its 
nobility, its royalty, down upon the infidel Turk, to lib- 
erate the holy sepulchre from pollution 1 And have we 
not a nobler order of mind to address and move, have we 
not a holier crusade to commend 1 Did Kings throw 
away their sceptres, and grasp the sword to carry war, 
and devastation, and death, amidst innocent thousands, to 



56 SERMON II. 

gratify a sentiment of superstition 1 And will not our 
youth be ready even to forsake their firesides in the ho- 
lier, nobler work, of bowing the heart of man to the scep- 
tre of Christ 1 Look at the minute steps in this great 
work. The preacher, the school-master, physician, far- 
mer, mechanic, must go and lead their benighted minds 
to Christ ; must carry them the press, educate their chil- 
dren, form neAV habits, and re-organize the structure of 
domestic society. 

Now all this range of thought strikes us with peculiar 
force, when we remember that there are no impediments 
to personal improvement, but such as indolence presents. 
Merit is in every civilized country an acknowledged 
claim to public confidence and to. extensive influence. 
To do good requires no genealogical table, no great fam- 
ily name. Young men, we know not how to cease our im- 
portunity. Will you commence, or pursue with renewed 
vigour, the course of self-improvement for philanthropic 
purposes 1 We want you to become truly strong men, 
in knowledge, in intellectual power, in moral energy. We 
want you not to be the authors of ephemeral excitements 
in our excitable world ; but to impress deeply on the 
human mind the eternal principles of moral and religious 
truth. Take the Redeemer of men for your model. Study 
deeply and prayerfully his character, until you breathe 
his spirit. Read the biography of good and great men. 
Take as a model of judicious perseverance, Granville 
Sharp, — under what one has called, — " the excitement of 
mercy," — he was led to protect a slave from Barbadoes, 
named Jonathan Strong, who was brought to England by 
his master, and becoming sick, was left to perish in the 
streets. After he had recovered under the kind attentions 
of a brother of Sharp, his master claimed him as his slave. 
This aroused the noble soul that could feel another's 
woes as keenly as his own, Sharp immediately applied 






OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 57 

himself to a new study, — and if every man who studies 
law would do it as he did, to become an able philanthro- 
pist, that profession might exert an influence for good, 
which cannot be calculated. He examined the principles 
of the British constitution and law, to see whether they 
really stood opposed to liberty and the rights of man. 
The decisions of all the highest courts were against him. 
Here then he determined to take his stand, with no other 
weapon than truth. He opposed the ablest and profound- 
est jurist England ever saw ; and he maintained that 
opposition, until he overthrew the influence of authorita- 
tive, but unjust opinion, and finally established the glori- 
ous truth, that by the British constitution every human 
being that treads on British soil is free. Two long years 
he spent, not in vapouring, and denouncing, and frothy 
declamation, but in an intense study of law. He then 
consulted the most eminent jurists, and wrote several 
tracts to enlighten the public mind, and prepare the way 
for his attack. After the case of Strong was decided in 
favour of the master, three other cases were tried, each 
one of which opened the way for Sharp to shake the pre- 
judices which, like spiders, hung their dusty cobweb folds 
even in such a king's palace as the mind of Mansfield. 
This great man at last yielded to Sharp's resistless argu- 
ment, and came out and settled the principle for ever. 
Trace this history through, to admire and imitate his mo- 
tives, — his persevering and painful study. Be benefac- 
tors of your race ; be deep, profound thinkers. See the 
array of public sentiment against him ; and see the tri- 
umph of principle. Behold its effects now in the West 
Indies and in America. The first of August stands close- 
ly connected, not in time, but as effect to cause, to the 
efforts of that noble mind. Fellow Christians, I take this 
occasion to commend to you the interests of the British 
and Foreign Young Men's Society. Its objects are wor- 



58 SERMON II. 

thy your ardent affection. They are comprehended in 
the improvement of youthful hearts and minds. Antici- 
pate what they may be. Perhaps to-night a strong desire 
for self-improvement is aroused ; but without your aid, 
aroused in vain. To what nobler object can you devote 
hundreds of pounds than to feed those minds, and train 
these patriots and philanthropists X 



JESUS THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 59 



SERMON III. 



JESUS THE GREAT MISSIONARY 



For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which 
was lost. Luke xix. 10. 

The meaning of that word — lost, is the separating- 
point from which diverge the most important sentiments, 
that divide the nominally Christian world. It affects es- 
sentially all our religious sentiments, character and career. 
If one sees in it but a nourish of rhetoric, or an oriental 
exaggeration ; then his conscience slumbers ; then his 
sympathies feel no deep appeal from man's condition and 
prospects ; and then his heart lies chilled beneath the cold 
moon-beams of the gospel. For, to him that gospel 
opens on the one hand, no thrilling scene of spirits fallen, 
denied, benighted and accursed; and on the other, no 
enrapturing display of love, of condescension lower than 
angels had dared anticipate, of mercy's immeasurable 
sacrifice, made despite of base ingratitude and of parricidal 
rebellion. To him the gospel is a description of goodness 
similar to, but no greater than that displayed in the ordi- 
nary gifts of Providence. Such is the theory and such 
are the fruits of the skeptical and semi-skeptical philoso- 
phy. Wherever it is accepted, the distinction between 
man's native powers and sensibilities and his actual char- 
acter as a subject of God's government, is lost sight of; 
human nature is admired almost to adoration ; repentance, 
as that deep emotion which breaks the heart and bruises 



60 SERMON III. 

the spirit, is despised. Thus, whatever other " sacrifices" 
are offered to God, among them is not found a " broken 
heart and a bruised spirit." Thus it acts on the personal 
piety of the individual, and thus it affects his influence 
on others. In himself he finds more to admire than to 
condemn ; when he discovers wrong, he considers it 
superficial ; no deep and painful sense of spiritual neces- 
sity, corresponding to descriptions in the Bible, is felt by 
him. Calm self-complacency is indeed the very feeling 
which he seeks to derive from religion. And if he sees 
any thing else and opposite in others, it causes only con- 
tempt or pity. He approves not their deep and pungent 
convictions of guilt and misery, nor comprehends how 
the atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God is needed for his 
guilt, and the regenerating power of the Holy Ghost for 
his depravity. 

Their fundamental error is on two points, and respects 
two aspects of human nature — man as the subject of law ; 
and man in his capacity for a spiritual life. 

Their views of man's guilt and ill-desert are com- 
paratively slight. They allow him to be satisfied with 
the contemplation of his own excellence, his intellectual 
qualities, his social feelings, his moral sensibilities. They 
hold in abhorrence only certain crimes against civil laws 
and social order. They excite and they allow no deep 
and heart-breaking convictions for spiritual offences; 
they arouse no fears of endless punishment. They go to 
the neglecter of religion, and persuade him to become 
more attentive to religious truths and duties. They go 
to the Pagan, and urge him to embrace a purer rite, a 
more rational theology. Their appeals are not made to 
the conscience, to start it from deep slumbers, and make 
it echo the thunders of coming judgment. And when 
they find it awakened, they proclaim to it no peace- 
speaking sacrifice for sin ; in fact, they censure this very 






JESUS THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 61 

alarm, and attribute it to ignorance and error. Hence 
they find nothing in man's prospects to enlist deeply their 
own solicitude. Hence they accord not with us in our 
endeavours to awaken a slumbering world by strong ap- 
peals to make it hear — amid what they call its innocent 
amusements and occupations — the voice of an insulted 
Deity, of an outraged Father, of the threatening majesty 
of Heaven. 

Thus we differ from them in our estimate of the extent 
and purity of the precepts of the divine law. We con- 
sider all the world as its guilty violators 5 we consider all 
human virtue in man's unconverted state, as truly sin ; 
and the more sinful, the more it becomes an object of ad- 
miration to its possessor, and an occasion of undervaluing 
the mediation and propitiatory sacrifice of the Son of God. 

Equally antipathetic are our views of man's spiritual 
character. Of the dignity of his original character and 
position, of the noble character of some of the sentiments 
of a few, we have as high an estimate as any. But we 
believe that the spiritual image of God is effaced from the 
human soul ; man is fallen, terribly, desperately fallen ; 
the gold has lost its lustre. His virtues are to us the 
white exteriors and the gilded ornaments of the sepulchre. 
His smiles are to us the more painful, as they convince us 
that he is, or tries to be contented with his state of spiritual 
poverty, guilt and degradation. In a word, we consider 
man as alienated from God ; intellectually and physically 
alive, spiritually dead. And therefore we cannot content 
ourselves by endeavouring to refine and elevate a few of 
the most highly favoured of our race; we must reach all 
men. They are all wanderers from the home of the soul, 
the bosom of God ; and they must all be persuaded to 
return. The malady of sin lies deeply fixed in the im- 
mortal part, the soul ; and therefore intellectual elevation 
and social refinement do not remove it, and have no 



62 SERMON III. 

tendency to remove it. We regard the gospel applied by- 
God's Spirit as the sole remedy. Christ is their life ; 
Christ, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the 
world ; Christ, the ever-living intercessor ; Christ, the 
medium and fountain of the life-giving Spirit. The 
world — all the world, high and low, princes and peasants, 
learned and ignorant, virtuous and vicious, idolaters, in- 
fidels and nominal Christians — must believe in Christ, or 
"be damned;" damned at that tribunal where the be- 
lievers shall be pardoned ; damned by the malediction of 
the Holy One who appears " in the glory of his Father, 
taking vengeance on them that obey not the gospel." 

From these different estimates of man arise, what should 
not arise, hostile feelings ; but hence arise also necessarily, 
our different courses with regard to man. With our views, 
we shall never be satisfied without the most strenuous 
efforts to bring all mankind to repentance and faith in 
Christ. With their views, they naturally look with in- 
difference on the earnestness and self-denial of missionary 
life, and the success of missionary enterprise, so far as the 
work of the Spirit of God upon the heart is concerned. 

It behooves us then to review our premises. The 
sincere mind is ever ready to ask — Am I right % We 
are willing to ask and wait candidly for the reply to 
these questions ; — How must I regard human nature, 
myself and my fellow men 1 — What is my highest duty 
with respect to my immortal self, and what with respect 
to my fellow men 1 Nay ; we are not taking up this 
subject for the first time. We have already decided and 
felt and acted upon it. We who have embarked in the 
missionary enterprise, are a small minority of the civilized 
world, perhaps a minority even of the religious world. 
We have spent large sums of money, yea squandered 
wealth, if we are wrong; we are still doing it, and we 
are arousing the churches to intenser feeling and more 



JESUS THE GREAT MISSIONARY* 63 

liberal effort. We desire to consecrate our v6ry selves 
to this enterprise. Life is rapidly passing away, and we 
are devoting its best hours and energies to this works 
Some of our number have severed every tie of home and 
nation, have adopted a life of exile and privation ; wisely, 
if our views of man are truth ; madly and miserably, if 
they are error. This night we are assembled to sym- 
pathize with another who has ventured his temporal all 
upon the truth of our sentiments. We together look 
upon the situation of mankind apart from the provisions 
of the gospel, and away from under its influences, as 
inconceivably dreadful and desperate. Our souls are 
moved with deep compassion, our hearts are oppressed, 
as we contemplate his present state and his prospects 
beyond this life. We want to rush to his rescue. Are 
we right or are we wrong 1 Are these emotions excited 
in view of truth and stern reality, or by a delusion of our 
own imaginations 1 Have we yielded to the influence of an 
unenlightened education ; or is it in view of facts that we 
are impelled and that we act % We desire truth and only 
truth. We desire to see things now, as far as practicable, 
as we shall see them, when the illusions of time shall 
have given place to the light of eternity. We have also 
a desire to vindicate our course to an intelligent world; 
and if we are right, to become in our turn the reprovers 
of its unbelieving indifference. And we may by divine 
blessing accomplish one other good by our meditations 
upon this subject ; even that of guarding our hearts against 
the chills of unbelief, and of quickening in them a deeper 
sympathy, stronger zeal, and holier purposes. 

Brethren, we spend this tender and sacred hour in con- 
templating, devoutly, 

Jesus, the Great Missionary. 

He is the Judge that ends the strife. He is the Logos, 



64> SERMON III. 

the Truth. All his views were truth, all his sentiments 
righteousness. There was, even in his finite human 
nature, no error in theory, no misapprehension of facts, 
no exaggerated impulse, no passion. He says he came 
to seek and to save that which is lost. That looks to us 
like calling him the Great Missionary, the Pattern of all 
missionaries, the Founder of our missionary institutions. 
We go forth to seek and to save that which is lost ; and 
we believe that our views and our course are an imita- 
tion of his, and an obedience to his last command, "Go 
ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
creature." 

We propose then to examine the meaning of the term 
" lost," as here employed, by the views which Jesus en- 
tertained of men, and by his conduct toward them. By, 

I. His estimate of man. What extent of meaning did 
he attach to the term " lost" 1 

1. He regarded man as a depraved and apostate spirit. 
Depraved and apostate are relative terms, referring to a 
certain standard of perfection and excellence. Man was 
made for great moral purposes, to conform to a type of 
perfect excellence, to attain great heights of moral ele- 
vation. Such was in fact the original, native tendency 
of his constitution. And there is his dignity. Now if 
the Saviour considered the present state of man as con- 
formed to that type; then he did not regard him as 
depraved and apostate. And happily we are left to no 
conjectures here. We have something better too, than 
dry and uncertain etymologies. Whenever we can ascer- 
tain what Jesus considered holiness and the spiritual life 
to be ; then we can tell from our own knowledge of man, 
what he considered to be his actual state. And yet bet- 
ter ; we may know directly what opinions he had on this 
subject. His ideas of holiness are seen in his own char- 
acter and actions ; of which it might be enough here to 



JESUS THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 65 

say, that all men consider them perfect, and yet totally 
unlike those of any other man. One has well said of 
him : " To God, as the source of his spiritual life, was 
his soul ever turned ; and this direction of his mind was 
a matter of indispensable necessity to him. It was his 
meat and his drink to do the will of his Father. With- 
out uniting himself wholly to God, consecrating himself 
to God unreservedly, feeling himself to be perfectly one 
with God, he could not have lived, he could not have 
been at peace in his spirit a single instant. By this means 
the morality of Jesus became perfectly religious ; it was 
not merely something which flowed from a sense of duty, 
it was a holy sentiment of the heart." Now whom did 
Jesus regard as possessing that spiritual life which con- 
sists in rising above created good to live in God, to feast 
on his smile, and breathe the atmosphere of his love 'I 
Was it the poor idolater of the surrounding pagan tribes ; 
was it the proud, sanctimonious Pharisee, inwardly full 
of putrefaction as the grave ; was it the infidel, sensual 
Sadducee, who ridiculed all pretensions to spiritual com- 
munion ; was it the crowd who followed him, not for 
truth and spiritual aliment, but for bread ; was it the rich 
young ruler, so amiable, so pure, so sincere, who went 
away sorrowful when he learned that God and mammon 
cannot be loved and served together ; nay, was it the 
half-converted Peter, whom he rebuked as fearing, in the 
spirit of Satan, the sacrifice of self ; or John and James, 
who then looked, in serving God, for the honours of a 
temporal kingdom ; was it, in a word, the being of whom 
it is recorded, that Jesus " knew what was in man," and 
therefore trusted not himself to him % Oh no ! the Son 
of God walked like a living man among the tombs ; and 
the silence of the second death had reigned there for ever, 
if his own omnipotent voice had not cried — " Lazarus, 
come forth." 

7 



66 SERMON III. 

We have another exhibition of the Saviour's views of 
what constitutes the spiritual life, in his benedictions. 
" Blessed are the poor in spirit, the pure in heart, the 
peace-makers, they who hunger and thirst after righte- 
ousness, they who love him more than parents and pos- 
sessions ', nay, that forsake all things, even life itself, for 
His sake and the gospel's." Now, can we believe that he 
considered mankind generally in his day, or that he con- 
siders the men of this or any other period, as pure in 
heart, peace-makers, seeking spiritual good with an eager- 
ness like that of the corporeal appetites ; seeking their 
rest in God, as the weary body seeks its couch ) longing 
for God, as the hunted hart pants for the water brook, or 
as the shipwrecked mariner longs for morning light 1 
Can mankind generally say sincerely, " My heart and my 
flesh crieth out for the living GodV' Impossible. 

Our Saviour again presents the standard of human ex- 
cellence ; " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
thy heart, soul, mind and strength, and thy neighbour as 
thyself." And did he think that idolaters, the profane, 
the neglecters of God's service, those who love pleasure 
more than God, the proud, the covetous, the sensual ; did 
he believe that they were good, when compared with that 
standard — thou shalt love God supremely and perfectly 1 
Or the envious, ambitious, fraudulent, cruel, tyrannical, 
impure, slanderers ; do they love others as themselves 1 
Do they in India, Africa, Europe, America ; did they in 
any part or age of the world 1 Ask history. It is indeed 
too generally the record of the powerful. But it shows 
what all would do if their circumstances permitted. And 
have the powerful been good] Have their lives been 
examples of piety; have their energies been consecrated 
to the public welfare 1 There has been a Cyrus, an Aris- 
tides, a Joshua, a St. Louis, an Alfred. But they are the 
exceptions. The history of kingdoms is a record of wars 



JESUS THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 67 

and their horrors, of frauds and oppressions. What says 
the social state of mankind! Let the condition of 
woman speak in all the lands where human nature has 
acted out its unobstructed tendencies. What is a Turkish 
wife, an Indian mother, a Hindoo widow % Come home 
then to the criminal codes and criminal courts and crim- 
inal establishments of Christian America. Leave the 
poetry of the parlour ; lay down that enchanting book 
which enraptures you with its visions of human dignity 
and loveliness ; leave that circle of refinement, where a 
favoured few have separated themselves from the vulgar, 
to enjoy a higher intellectual and social life ; and come 
with me out among the mass of this moving population. 
Let us go into the lanes and alleys, the alms-houses, the 
hospitals, the prisons. Shrink not, admirer of human na- 
ture ; this is man, godlike man. Do you know that thou- 
sands of the very children of this city are liars, thieves, 
impure, profane % And what of the pagan world ! Oh 
let the missionary tell you, who having gone out to make 
common interest with the heathen, has examined deeply 
into his character. Here are nearly five hundred mil- 
lions ; and yet the portrait in the first chapter of the 
Epistle to the Romans remains fearfully accurate. And 
does this being, man, remain as he was, when, coming 
pure and perfect from his Creator's hands, he was pro- 
nounced very good 1 And what commission have dis- 
eases and death in this fair world % Who opened the 
door by which they rushed in upon their prey 1 Did God 
make man for this 1 You must say, Yes. The Bible 
says, "by sin, death entered into the world j and so death 
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Each 
breath you draw marks the death of three of your race. 
The first may be the lovely bride, decked for the altar 5 
the next the father of a dependent family ; the next the 
sovereign, who has been the father of his people. No 



68 SERMON III. 

place is so exalted, none so sacred, that disease cannot 
invade it. No tie is so tender and so precious that death 
will spare it. And when you visit the burial-yard ', ask 
whether man is as God made him ! Was he made to be 
the slave of Satan ; the sport of tempests and the prey of 
death ; was he made for poverty and filth, for rags and 
wo 1 Oh no ! he is fallen. The race is fallen. If we 
want another test, we have it in the pure worship which 
Jesus rendered the Father. Place this by the side of hu- 
man religions. The greater part of them are bloody, 
and seem to have preserved the tradition, that " without 
shedding of blood, is no remission" of sins. But they 
are also impure, and thus declare the deep apostacy of 
man, when his very religions remove him farther from 
God and holiness. If he makes a Jupiter, he is a mon- 
ster of lust ; a Mars, he drives his chariot over the dying ; 
a Mercury, he is chief of robbers ; a Juggernaut, he feasts 
on mangled human limbs. And when a pure revelation 
is given to him, first in a single nation, he turns backward 
ever toward idolatry ; and when Christianity is given to 
the nations, they pervert and pervert it, until, of the two 
hundred and fifty millions who possess it, one hundred 
and ninety millions are sunk in superstition and idolatry 
little better than paganism itself. The moral condition 
of France and Spain and Italy, the history of religious 
persecutions conducted in the name of Jesus Christ, and 
as the expansion of his spirit and as obedience to his pre- 
cepts, appear to us sad confirmations of the truth of our 
view, that man is lost, because he is a depraved and apos- 
tate creature. 

We learn again our Saviour's estimate of men, in the 
direct expression of his views. And here we are at a loss 
to select ; for the full exhibition of all that is contained in 
the Evangelists on this point, would be but piling passage 
on passage. He describes the condition and prospects of 






JESUS THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 69 

man in parables and in simple historic language in ways 
that appear to us impossible to misapprehend. If man is 
an apostate and depraved creature ; then we shall expect 
to hear that the way to heaven is of difficult attainment, 
and entered but by few. If man is not an apostate, but 
an innocent, upright, pure being ; then he has only to 
obey his instincts, to cultivate his noble nature, and he is 
holy and happy. It surely cannot be difficult to decide 
what Jesus thought on that point. " Broad is the road 
that leadeth to destruction, and many go in thereat, while 
narrow is the way that leadeth to life, and few there be 
that find it. If any man will come after me, let him 1 ' 
what 1 cultivate his good heart 1 — no, " deny himself." 
And in how many ways does he describe us as poor and 
miserable and blind, and sick and weary, burdened, im- 
prisoned, enslaved, dead, exposed to endless destruction. 
If not sick, we have no need of him ; if not sinners, he 
has no message to us, for " they that are whole need not a 
physician, but they that are sick." In his conversation 
with Nicodemus, he says that we must be regenerated, 
and that whoever is not, cannot be saved. And mark his 
emphatic reason; "that which is born of the flesh, is 
flesh." By our natural birth, we inherit only that which 
cannot inherit heaven. In the natural birth, there is a 
terrible entailment of degeneracy ; and so there needs a 
supernatural birth, a birth of the Spirit. With all this in 
view, it is impossible to believe that Jesus regarded man 
as a refined, noble, elevated being; as in his present 
state, the type of perfection. He never says it, he never 
intimates it. We look in vain for passages in all his ad^ 
dresses, as well as in all the writings of his disciples, to 
find a language or a sentiment like that which we con-, 
stantly hear about the purity and nobleness and virtue of 
individual men. 

But in this connection we cannot pass by the portrait 
7* 



70 SERMON III. 

of man given in the story of the prodigal son. Its very 
object was to reprove the self-righteous men who thought 
they had done no wrong, and had not wandered from their 
father's house. We cite this here particularly, because 
the very term whose meaning we seek, is the hinge of the 
story. Here was one lost to his father. There is some- 
thing in the word — lost, which falls on our ear like a death- 
knell. It presents to us the twofold idea contained in this 
story, and in the two in its context ; that of disappoint- 
ment to God's affectionate interest for us, and to our own 
hopes of blessedness. Observe the word lost illustrated 
here three times. The shepherd has lost his sheep, than 
which nothing is dearer to him ; the woman her means of 
living ; the father his son. Observe this picture of man ; 
a wanderer — a wanderer from home, from God, from hea- 
ven and infinite love. The son of a kind and wealthy 
man feels the temptings of ambitious independence, and 
yields to their influence. He leaves the paternal roof, to 
escape the paternal eye. He gathers all, and goes into a 
far country, to find his happiness. But it was there "he 
began to be in want." It was there he plunged from 
depth to deeper depths of misery. Poor young man! 
we pity him ; we blame him too. But alas ! we are speak- 
ing of ourselves. This is the portrait of the race. Fellow- 
men, we are in that far country ; we are lost to God and 
to ourselves. Yes, he says it ; — -for behold yon shepherd ; 
what does he in the wild and desert place, exposing him- 
self to pains and dangers 1 Oh, he comes to seek and to 
save that which is lost. Yes, we are lost to God 3 — for, 
behold that aged and injured father running to meet the 
wandering boy when yet a great way off; falling on his 
neck, embracing, kissing him, exclaiming, " This, my son, 
was dead and is alive again, was lost, and is found ;" — lost 
to the angels ; for there is joy in heaven over one repent- 
ing sinner. Our noble faculties, our affections are lost to 



JESUS THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 71 

God ; for we love him not, praise nor serve him ; and in 
place of preparing to dwell in his blessed family, we force 
him to pronounce and execute upon us the fearful sen- 
tence of his law. That young man returned ; but not 
until he was convinced of his guilt and folly, not until he 
felt that he was in want. Had any one met him there, and 
convinced him that he had not wandered ; then he had 
never returned. That young man returned ; and heaven 
is to be re-peopled by these returning, repenting prodigals ; 
— and will there be there any elder sons of Adam's family, 
who have never wandered 1 We believe not. That man 
is a depraved and apostate creature, is written on every 
line of the Saviour's biography and on every syllable of his 
instructions. But, 

2. He regarded man also as a condemned criminal. Ac- 
cording to his saying to Nicodemus, " He that belie veth 
not, is condemned already." This was said in connec- 
tion with a comparison of man's moral condition to the 
physical state of the Israelites who were bitten by the 
fiery serpents. They, says the Saviour, were to be healed 
by looking at the uplifted symbol of God's righteous 
judgments against their sins ; so we, who are dying be- 
neath the righteous anger of God, are to be healed by be- 
lieving on Him who was lifted up for us on the accursed 
tree. But whoever believes not, remains in his state of 
condemnation. This condemnation includes two facts — 
that of transgression, and that of punishment. Jesus did 
regard men as sinners. But our ideas of sin are super- 
ficial and unimpressive ; those of Jesus were deep and 
awful. He traced each outward sin to the heart, the 
fountain of spiritual death 5 and he detected sin in the 
heart, where no outward sign was given to man. And he 
showed that it were better to lose limb and life, reputa- 
tion and each dear interest of earth, than to remain 
a sinner ; for sin is the transgression of the law, of 



72 SERMON III. 

God's holy law. It is a terrible thing to infringe the laws 
that control the material world. For, says a French 
preacher, "though the sea should burst its limits, and 
cover the earth with a new deluge ; though its furious 
waves should overturn and sweep away every thing in 
their passage ; though they should roll down with their 
fracas the rocks rent from the mountains, the uprooted 
trees, the dead bodies of men and animals, and should 
make of our globe only a watery waste ; the disorder 
thus produced would not deserve to be named by the side 
of that which sin produces. Though the world should 
totter on its ancient base, and reel from its foundations ; 
though the stars and their systems should rush into wild 
disorder, and dash against each other ; and the universe 
revert to a more frightful chaos than that from which 
God brought it at the beginning ; this disorder, this over- 
turning of all material things, would not deserve to be 
compared with the disorder that sin produces." And 
this, because the one is the disorder of ignoble and per- 
ishable matter ; the other is the ruin of mind. And not 
only has sin taken possession of the heart of man ; but, 
without supernatural aid, that possession must be indefi- 
nitely permanent. There is no tendency in human de- 
pravity toward self-recovery and perfection. In all that 
we have known of it, its course is ever downward, down- 
ward, and for ever downward ! Sin never yet exhausted 
itself in this world, nor in one heart. Every instance of 
recovery from its dominion is called by Jesus the con- 
quest of a strong man armed by a stronger than he. And 
while man is thus a sinner, a transgressor of law, he is 
exposed to eternal death. If the warnings and expostu- 
lations of Christ do not teach that ; then they are to us- 
without meaning. " Wo unto thee Chorazin, and to thee 
Bethsaida ; for it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and 
Sidon, Sodom and Gomorrah, than for you ! And thou 



JESUS THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 73 

Capernaum ! exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to 
hell. What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole 
world, and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give in 
exchange for his soul 1 There shall be weeping and wail- 
ing and gnashing of teeth. Dives after death lifted up 
his eyes in hell, being tormented." The net and fishes, 
the wise and foolish virgins, the wheat and tares, the sep- 
aration of the sheep and goats, the treatment of the un- 
faithful steward, all tell us what he believes concerning 
man's eternal destiny. But nothing he uttered is more 
terrible than the declaration, that he himself will say at 
last to the wicked, " Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting 
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Men may 
close their ears, and shut their eyes to this ; but it is the 
word of God. Men may refuse to hear it ; but there it 
stands, a yet unfulfilled prophecy, made if possible more 
certain to us, by the past fulfilment of the others which 
surround it. Yes, as certain as was the destruction of 
Babylon and Tyre, the deluge of water and the flood of 
fire on a guilty world ; as certain and as terrible as was 
the destruction of Jerusalem, will be the utterance and 
execution of those terrific words. And as idle and impo- 
tent will be the scoffs and self-reasonings of this day, as 
were those of that day, to arrest the judgments of God. 
But who can measure their meaning 1 " Cursed /" it is 
terrible to be cursed by a man, a wicked man, without 
cause ; but to be cursed by a Father, by a being who 
never errs in judgment, a being who never condemns un- 
justly, a being who suffered to save us, a being who has 
long expostulated in view of this very judgment, a being 
who commands the elements of the universe to execute 
his purposes, a being who ranks his glorious perfections 
to flash conviction to the centre of my guilty conscience ! 
You say, this is extravagant; but it is scriptural. You 
say, it is cruel ; but whether is it cruelty to flatter and 



74 



SERMON III. 



deceive and hide impending danger, or to expose it fully 
and earnestly 1 Men are to be cursed. What is this 
curse 1 A charge to the universe to dry up each foun- 
tain of delight, and open on my guilty soul its avenging 
streams. What does this curse 1 " It strips the world 
external and internal of love and sympathy for my poor 
heart, nature of its charms, earth of its fruit, the hea- 
vens of their blessings, existence of its joys, and dries 
up the last drop of happiness in the last fold of my heart ;" 
seals up the door of heaven against my spirit, and blots 
out the star of hope. When this terrific word falls from 
the lips of the blessed Jesus, it forbids an angel wing 
ever to flit by my drear abode ; " it withers up my soul 
to its root, like that unfortunate tree which the breath of 
the Lord cursed, and of which an Apostle said the next 
day in astonishment — Lord, the fig-tree that thou cur- 
sedst, is withered away." What must this curse, this 
banishment be 1 No tongue can tell, no imagination now 
conceive it. Christ has warned us with a solemnity that 
may well intimidate and arouse. We can conceive of it 
as nothing less than eternal banishment from light and 
life and hope, to regions prepared for the devil and his 
angels, where the soul "shall be enveloped and penetra- 
ted with a misery immense, infinite ; where it shall find 
nothing more in all beings, but an universal hell ; a hell 
within, a hell without, a hell in God himself." 

The Son of man came to seek and to save that which 
is lost — lost to God, to itself, to heaven, to hope, to purity 
and peace and love, lost for ever! One Scripture phrase 
concentrates the whole truth ; man lives adtog, without 
God. He was made in the image of God, made for him ; 
made holy and perfect, filled with light and pure affection. 
Then his eye beheld the glory of God. Then he groped 
not in that darkness which now surrounds him, then he 
pined not beneath the maladies and miseries and mortality 



JESUS THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 75 

which now afflict him. I have said that we have more 
exalted views of man than either the skeptic or semi- 
skeptic philosophy contain. We have. We believe in 
his original dignity ; and we have such views of that, 
that man in his present state is a source of constant dis- 
tress to us ; and we desire perpetually to be proclaiming 
in his hearing, the dignity he has lost. We would say 
perpetually to him, as we should to the degenerate de- 
scendant of a noble family, still wearing their name and 
title, and even imitating their lofty bearing ; ' Shame, 
shame on thee ! Thy name, thy palace, thy lordly mien 
are all thy reproach.' We have such exalted views also 
of the perfectibility of man, that we cannot endure to see 
the world contenting itself with any thing short of the 
image of God, and of perfect communion with him. Man 
was a noble being when God said of him — he is good. 
But he aspired too high ; he tried to become a centre 
of light and strength and happiness to himself, and to be 
independent of God. He withdrew from God's spiritual 
dominion, and God abandoned his spiritual nature to 
itself, and made him in his wretchedness a spectacle to 
himself and to the universe. The brute creation have fled 
him, for he has become their enemy ; the very earth has 
felt the blighting curse that lighted on him. He was 
chased from Eden's happy garden, and the cherub-sentry 
with naming sword still stands to bar his return. Happy 
Eden ! scene of our sweet communion with God ; happy 
Eden, witness of our dignity and of our blessedness ; thou 
art lost to us and we to thee ! My brethren, we are 
strong and high believers in the dignity of human nature. 
No man shall deprive us of this our boasting ; yet, not in 
human nature as it is, but as it was, and as by grace it 
may become. But as he is, man is lost. And we want 
to sit down by the side of every brother of the human 
race, and weep with him for the crown which is fallen 



76 



SERMON III. 



from our brow, the home and the heaven which we have 
lost. We want to undo the deceiving 1 of his pride, and 
sigh and pray with him for the recovery of our birth-right. 
But are the heathen, who have not our light, exposed 
to perdition X A careless world, unwilling to make 
thorough inquiry into the condition and prospects of 
other men, complacently wraps itself in the mantle of an 
imagined charity, and says, ' The mercy of God will 
never consign them to endless punishment, when they 
have sincerely done their best according to the light they 
enjoy.' And there, indeed, we are agreed with the world ; 
but we are forced to stop there ; for we have too many 
proofs that there are few of them who will have that plea. 
We find also a part of the church, though unable to hope 
much for the pagan world, yet unwilling to adopt the 
harsh conclusion that these hundreds of millions are 
rushing blindly to endless ruin ; and preferring to rest in 
a vague hope that it will not be so, rather than to search 
the Scriptures to ascertain if God has given us any in- 
struction on the subject, and imposed upon us any re- 
sponsibility in the matter. Here we shall fail of time for 
a solemn topic. The sneers of the world terrify us not 
in such a matter. The charge of cruelty troubles not 
our conscience, while we seek not to make their de- 
struction a fact, but to ascertain whether they are really 
exposed to destruction, in order that we may aid them 
to escape it. Indeed, if we were not distrustful of our 
own imperfect motives, we should say that ours is the 
true charity, which welcomes evidence though it bring 
us to the results of distressing sympathy and of self- 
denying labour. We are inclined to suspect the depth of 
that charity which, to save its possessor pain, and spare 
him labour, settles a great principle of the divine govern- 
ment, a great future fact, not by examining God's testi- 
mony, but by appealing to a mere human sensibility. If 



JESUS THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 77 

we consult our sympathies, we say, ' The poor pagans 
will not go to a miserable eternity ; but where they will 
go we know not.' But when we ask, ' What has God 
asserted on this subject V we rise from the answer with 
heavy hearts. The cry of the perishing then swells on 
our ear — ' Come over and help us,' — until we wish for a 
thousand tongues to proclaim to them the way of life. 
An outline of God's testimony is all we can here present. 
If we examine their lives, considered in the light of a 
disciplinary, probationary or preparatory state, we can- 
not believe that they go to heaven. They, as well as we, 
must be regenerated, and that in this world. But we find 
them as in Paul's day, infanticides, liars, adulterers, cov- 
enant-breakers, bestial, sensual, devilish, murderers of 
mothers. All this seems to us a preparation not for 
heaven, but for perdition. We find them too, just what 
the Canaanites were, whom God in his anger swept from 
the earth, but surely not into heaven. They are idolaters, 
if there ever were any, and God declares that such cannot 
enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, to believe that they 
are in the way to heaven, is to regard all the Apostle's 
anxieties and labour for their salvation as unfounded, ex- 
travagant and useless. And again 5 the Apostle has fully 
reasoned out the case in two places. In the one he shows 
that they sin against their light as we do against ours. 
In the other, this is his missionary argument — ' For who- 
soever shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved. 
But how shall they call on him in whom they have not 
believed ; and how believe in him of whom they have 
not heard ; and how hear, without preachers ; and how 
preach, unless sent. 1 No, my brethren, it may be natural 
sympathy, or it maybe distrust of God's testimony which 
says, ' Let the heathen alone ;' but it is not enlightened 
piety. Then we are right in our estimate of man ; then 
we should not be dazzled by his external appendages, his 

8 



78 SERMON III. 

intellectual and social traits. Then we may say to the 
higher and lower Deistic philosophies, — Your boast is 
vain, when you claim the exclusive admiration of human 
nature ; for we have higher views than either of you. 
You would satisfy man with certain social excellencies, 
certain pagan virtues, certain moral sentiments, which 
have little or no reference to God ; but we believe that 
man was made to live in God, and to reflect his image to 
the universe. You are teaching him to aspire to an in- 
tellectual millennium ; we are aiming to prepare the 
world to return to the love of God and a spiritual life. 
We hold too, the key that unlocks the deep mystery of 
man's present condition. A French writer of your school 
says — " I resemble, O Lord, the night-globe, which in the 
obscure path where thy ringer leads it, reflects from the 
one side, eternal light, and on the other is plunged in 
mortal shades." " How abject, how august," says one of 
another school, "how complicate, how wonderful is man!" 
There is something great in man, and something abject. 
To us the mystery is solved. Man was great, good, god- 
like in his powers and in his character ; but he is fallen in 
character, and in that fall has dragged down his powers 
and native sentiments ; leaving, like a volcanic rupture, 
fragments of an Eden, scattered flowers that live here an 
exotic life. 

We shall now consider much more briefly, Jesus as our 
pattern, 

II. In HrS TREATMENT OF MEN. 

We see in what light he regarded man ; and how his 
holy soul was moved with compassion towards him. We 
now demand, What did his compassion lead him to do] 
If to make great sacrifices, then his views of man's lost 
estate must have been very strong ; for although it may 
be love, it is also foolish love that makes a greater sacri- 
fice and effort for another, than his necessities demand. 



JESUS THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 79 

But when a being of infinite intelligence makes great sac- 
rifices, greater than we are capable of estimating ; the 
evidence is complete, that the misery threatening or ac- 
tually affecting those whom he aids, is equally immea- 
surable by us. On the subject of the condescension and 
sacrifices of the Lord Jesus Christ, the language of the 
Bible is deep, mystic, suggestive. He had a glory with 
the Father before the world was, but he left it. What was 
that glory % we want to ask — where, and how did he 
leave it in becoming a man 1 The veil of flesh hides it 
from our sight. He was rich; when, where, in what 1 
The clouds and darkness of an infinite majesty rest around 
his person, and hide from feeble mortals the splendours of 
his primitive empire. But he became poor. He took on 
him or was invested with flesh. Then he was, before he 
was flesh ; he was before Abraham; he was David's root 
and Lord, before he was his offspring and successor. 
Mysterious language ! He took on him at the very in- 
stant when angels were adoring him as the only begotten 
of the Father, the form of a servant ; and came to be de- 
spised and rejected, to hear hisses and taunts and blas- 
phemies instead of hosannas and hallelujahs. He ex- 
changed heaven's diadem for Judea's thorns, and the 
robes of light for Pilate's faded and discarded garment ; 
he forsook the palace where he was sovereign, for the 
judgment hall where he was bound and buffeted and 
scourged and condemned. He left his body-guard of holy 
and mighty angels, to be at the mercy of wicked and puny 
mortals who hated him. He was the Lord of the uni- 
verse, but he was born of one of the lowliest inhabitants 
of earth's obscurest corner. He was prince of life, but 
he tasted death for every man. This the Scriptures call 
his sacrifice for man's salvation. But they make all this 
the lightest feature of the image of his cross. When they 
would start our imaginations on the path to his expiatory 



80 SERMON III. 

sufferings, they drop a few phrases, which are not so much 
intended to instruct as to impress and overwhelm us with 
godly fear and sympathy. " My soul is exceeding sorrow- 
ful ; yea it is oppressed by a death-like sorrow." What 
made him sorrowful — so sorrowful 1 Nothing in all that 
was external around him there ; nothing that the Evan- 
gelists mention. Again j in the garden his bodily frame 
passes through an unparalleled excitement of agony ; but 
from no apparent adequate cause. To attribute it to his 
fear of crucifixion, or to sorrow for his cause and friends, 
betrays the most entire disrespect. Again ; his agonizing 
cry, Why hast thou forsaken me 1 permits us to conjec- 
ture that there is something in what the Son of God 
endured in our stead and for our salvation, which we may 
understand only when our intellectual powers shall be ex- 
panded by the light, and our moral powers purified by the 
love of heaven. And when Jesus said with emphasis, 
1 God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten 
Son,' we understand that this gift was so costly, and there 
was in some way such an expenditure and sacrifice, that it 
not only showed God's love to man more clearly than all 
else he had ever said or done ; but also, that it shows the 
immensity of that love. And so, when the Apostle reasons 
for the encouragement of faith ; " If God spared not his 
own Son," &c, we understand that this not sparing, and 
freely giving up, involve something which we are now 
incapable of comprehending, but by which God designs to 
affect our hearts and form our characters more powerfully 
than by all his word or works. If the understanding of 
any man forbids the flow of emotion, until this veil is 
removed ; then his heart will never feel fully in this life 
what Paul felt when he said, "The love of Christ con- 
straineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, 
then were all dead." We were all dead, and he died for 
the dead ; and in dying, he showed his conviction of our 
state of spiritual death. 



JESUS THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 81 

But we have done with proofs of man's apostate and 
ruined state. It is to us a fact. The Word of God 
declares it. But it also declares another fact. And on 
all this gloomy cloud rests this rainbow truth — 'The Son 
of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.' 
Oh then, ye scoffing economists ! let us hear no more your 
severe reproofs of our poor expenditures of property in the 
missionary cause. Jesus is the master whom we follow, 
though at too great a distance ; Jesus is the model we 
imitate, though very imperfectly. Oh then, covetous, 
selfish professors of Christ's gospel ; imbibe his spirit, 
and live and labour and expend for the recovery of the 
lost. Brethren, I must rise now from the attitude of 
defence, and turn and charge on this practical indifference 
and on this skeptical philosophy, positive guilt. Had the 
Bible contained its present amount of wisdom, but on 
some of men's temporal interests ; had it determined the 
great questions of finance ; how eagerly would they read 
it, how cordially believe it ! But as a spiritual book, the 
one class disregard it, and the other look at it as full of 
exaggerations. But they should remember that this is 
the only volume in human language which God has 
condescended to write. And should it not contain deep, 
high, wondrous things 1 Is not this one of its very marks 
and seals'? The Bible is full of paradoxes; because it 
shows us only fragments of truths, the full magnitude 
and harmony of which we cannot now comprehend. 
When God teaches man the dignity of his origin ; phi- 
losophy denies it, and makes him the birth of chance. 
When the Bible declares the dignity of man's primeval 
estate ; philosophy denies it, and says he is as good and 
pure and happy as when God made him, When God pro- 
nounces his fearful sentence against sin; philosophy laughs 
at it, and says it is extravagant. When God proclaims 
the immense price of our redemption ; she laughs again, 

8* 



S3 SERMON III. 

and says, how absurd to make an expiation to himself, 
and so costly a one for such trivial offences. But God 
knows two things which we do not know, and therefore 
does two things which we would not do. He knows the 
demerit of sin, and therefore threatens it with everlasting 
punishment. He knows the value of the soul, and there- 
fore gives his Son for its redemption. Ye that despise 
this rich gift ; ye that despise us for our efforts to pro- 
claim its story to the world ; let me say to you in God's 
name — Ye have a double guilt, and must meet a twofold 
condemnation. You believe not, and therefore are con- 
demned already. You also rob the world of its hope. 
Your theories and your practice would leave mankind in 
a hopeless condition. You dash from the trembling hand 
of perishing man the lamp of life, the cup of salvation ; 
you shatter in pieces the only barque to which poor 
human nature can commit its hopes for eternity ! What 
have you proved, fellow-man 1 At best a negative. You 
have begun and ended with denying. That there is dis- 
order, wickedness, misery, you cannot deny. That 
the world is full of it, you cannot deny. And yet you 
would prevent our going to probe this mortal wound and 
administer God's efficacious remedy. If one finds himself 
the slave of passion, if his conscience condemns him, if 
he fears that there possibly may be an hour of retribution 
and an eternity of wretchedness just beyond the confines 
of life— what can you say to this troubled spirit 1 You 
can sneer ; but can you console 1 You can reason ; but 
can you suppress the instinctive solicitude for a sure and 
solid hope of immortal blessedness 1 It was an instruc- 
tive scene when the dying Hindoo, representing our com- 
mon humanity, turned to his priest and cried — Where 
shall I go when I leave the body! And the priest replied, 
in the spirit of your philosophy and in the pride of igno- 
rance—into a bird, But when that bird dies — where 



JESUS THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 83 

then 1 Into a flower. And where then 1 The priest be- 
came weary with answering ; but still the soul cried — • 
And where then 1 That is the question which must be 
met — fully, definitely and authoritatively answered. To 
leave it unsolved, is to mock and deceive the wretched 
heart of the mourner ; to leave it unsolved, and yet pre- 
tend to offer the cure for human misery, is charlatanry 
the" most detestable. To answer it by conjectures, or 
to meet it with inferences from God's mercy which every 
groan and tear falsifies, is fraud of the most injurious 
kind. To amuse man with theories, but to leave dark- 
ness on this chief point of all his solicitude, is the glory 
of anti-scriptural philosophy. Just where man most 
wants light, it is darkness. And just there the Bible 
pours the effulgence of eternal day. And not to hail that 
light, not to spread it, is treason to God's mercy, treason 
to our sacred trust, treason to man's highest interests. 

But let me turn a moment in closing, to you, my dear 
brother, on this momentous hour of your life, when you 
are come to receive from Jesus, by the hands of his 
unworthy servants, the investment of this highest office 
confided to man. Let me say to you J 

That deep compassion for men should characterize 
the whole spirit of the missionary and of missionary work. 
Go to the benighted, with as glad a heart as animated 
the angels when they were commissioned to announce 
the glad tidings of Heaven's great mission of love. When 
your feet shall touch the shores of that distant land, sing 
in the fulness of your spirit— Glory to God in the highest, 
peace on earth, and good will to man. Be touched, like 
your High-Priest, with a feeling of their infirmities. Dwell 
in your thoughts, on their lost estate ; see them as the 
great Shepherd did, wandering from the fold ; until your 
heart bleeds and breaks with pity. This will animate 
and sustain you amid difficulties. You can bear them for 



84 SERMON III. 

the sake of the miserable, for yours will then be pity 
tender and sustaining, like that of the patient mother by 
the couch of her suffering child. This will make you 
gentle and forbearing and patient, even with a mother's 
tenderness, and keep you from crushing the bruised reed, 
or quenching the faintly kindled wick. This will speak 
in heavenly eloquence from your very countenance, and 
melt the gates of brass in the hard heart of man. This 
will give you errands to the mercy-seat, and arguments 
before it. This will nerve you to your work, when a 
relaxing climate would tend to unnerve you. This will 
be treading in the footsteps of the Great Missionary. 

Let me say again — That the example of Christ is the 
missionary's encouragement. You leave all for those you 
would save ; so did he. You mean to identify yourself 
with them in every thing but sin, to bear their infirmities 
and share their sorrows; so did he. You are acting on 
the great principle, that to save from overflowing evil, the 
good of the universe must be diffused, not concentrated ; 
so did he. You are going to men, and not waiting for 
them to come to you ; so did he. You are going to seek 
and to save that which is lost, according to the measure 
imparted to you of the Father ; so did he. And you are 
not only labouring like Christ, but also for him and with 
him. He is seeking these very souls. He once did it in 
person. Now he does it by his Spirit and by his people. 
But his interest is no less now, than when his sacred feet 
were traversing the land which your feet shall traverse, 
to save the perishing sheep of Israel's fold. You are 
going like him to pray in Gethsemane ; but he spares 
your ascent to Golgotha and the tree. Go, dear brother, 
moisten with your tears for man the soil which he 
moistened when he thought of the lost. Go, assured 
not only that you are seeking them for Chsist, but that 
he is seeking them by you and with you. Urge that, 



JESUS THE GBEAT MISSIONARY. 85 

much, and with much faith in your prayers ; it will pre- 
vail for many a blessing. 

Let us conclude by saying — That persuasion to believe 
in Christ is the missionary's great work. To effect this, 
he must commend himself to the conscience. Through 
an awakened conscience, man learns his need of Christ. 
Go then, dear brother, speak to the sleeping conscience 
of man. Let not your attention be fixed upon his pecu- 
liarities, his specific qualities as an individual man, or his 
more general features of national character, his theories 
of philosophy and religion ; but meet him as a man, as a 
lost man ; nay, as one that knows he is lost. If your 
attention is drawn only or chiefly to his corporeal miseries, 
his social degradation, his intellectual privations, you 
will incur the danger of diverting his and your attention 
from that which should arouse your profo under sympa- 
thies, and all his slumbering energies of conscience. You 
must indeed attempt the melioration of his intellectual 
and social state ; but guard vigilantly against letting 
either your or his anxieties and efforts terminate there. 
When you have to meet him as the philosopher of another 
school, you may be discouraged at the sincerity and 
obstinacy, nay perhaps, plausibility with which he can 
confront you. But when you meet him in the winning 
strength of a deep sympathy; — you the lost and recovered, 
him the lost and perishing man ; — then you are in your 
strongest attitude, he is in his most defenceless. The 
missionary must speak from deep experience to the con- 
sciousness of guilt often stifled, never annihilated in the 
impenitent bosom; to a conscience often stifled, often 
cheated, never tranquillized by his vain superstitions. 
Speak, my brother ; now in thunder, now in the still, 
small voice. So God speaks in nature and in grace. 
Man will understand you, when you whisper to his con- 
science. Yet you may awaken resistance. The light is 



86 SERMON III. 

painful to them that love darkness. And false philosophy, 
and false religion and practical unbelief will all be resorted 
to, to shield the conscience. And yet your great work 
is to bring home on the soul of each man the conviction 
that he is lost. Trouble yourself little and others still 
less with theories of human depravity. They may be 
important. They have their place. But whatever else 
they do, they do not awaken the conscience. And if I 
mistake not, more of them have lulled, than have awakened 
it. The facts of depravity and conscience are two of the 
ultimate facts, to be taken as theological axioms. God 
has not proved the existence of either, but simply asserted 
it. And so may we ; both on his testimony and on men's 
very consciousness. And yet if your brethren entertain 
themselves with theory-making, or deem their theories 
important ; do not therefore separate from them ; only 
you yourself be given to the work of saving the lost. 
Perhaps one of the mightiest elements of ministerial power, 
is the deep conviction on the soul, of the lost condition of 
man. It must give fervour and frequency to prayer, and 
tend greatly to produce conviction in others. Your hearer 
may be proud and powerful in his philosophy, he may be 
self-complacent in his creed and cermonies. But whisper 
to his soul of seasons of shame and self-reproach and 
fear which forebodes impending doom ; and he cannot 
deny, he cannot argue ; for he feels that he is dealing 
with Truth and with God. In your public addresses, 
deal with the conscience and you will imitate the greatest 
preachers. Study the sermons of Elijah to Ahab, of 
Nathan to David, of Peter to the thousands at Jerusalem, 
of Paul to Felix. There you find no flattery of human 
nature, no general descriptions of virtue, but guilt and 
condemnation described as pertaining to them all. Feel 
that man is lost ; that guilt and condemnation and spiritual 
poverty belong to every child of Adam. Proclaim that, 



JESUS THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 87 

on the house-top and in the closet. Man may not have 
thought of it, but when you suggest it, he sees that it is 
truth. Give him exalted views of human dignity and 
worth, not as it is, but as it was and may be. Solve the 
strange perplexity of every man's experience; tell him 
what you know of former conflicts and present conquests; 
of noble aspirations after heaven and sordid attachments 
to earth ; of desires to please God and determinations to 
please self. Speak to his love of happiness ; he will 
understand you. And as you solve the mystery to his 
astonished soul, as you describe the symptoms of his 
spiritual malady, as you point him to the balm of Gilead, 
and the great Physician ; a new life of hope may begin 
to infuse itself into his soul. Again I say, your great em- 
ployment is to bring the individual souls of men to Christ. 
Be not diverted from this ; be not satisfied short of suc- 
cess in this. If you must do other things, consider them 
collateral and subordinate to this. Your glorious com- 
mission is, to seek and save the lost. Be filled, be fired 
with the spirit of that commission. May you, and may 
the church, and all of us who announce the gospel, be more 
and more filled with that glorious object — the recovering 
to immortal spirits the lost image of God, and guiding the 
perishing to an almighty Saviour. May the Spirit be 
poured from on high, until the whole church sees and 
feels that these facts are now of chief importance — man 
is lost, and the Son of God is seeking him ; man is lost, 
and the Son of God is come to save him ; man is lost, and 
the church is commissioned to go forth in the might of 
faith and prayer to his salvation. To save the lost ! To- 
night we talk of it, as children talk of the affairs of em- 
pires ; we see through a glass darkly ; our conceptions 
are low and limited. To save the lost ! Tell us, ye damned 
spirits, what it means. Tell us, Son of God, what it means ; 
what stirred thy soul in Godlike compassion to seek the 



88 SERMON III. 

lost ] Tell us, ye ransomed and ye faithful spirits who 
never sinned — tell us, eternity — what is this mighty work 
of gospel missions 1 Tell us, O Father ; tell thy churches ; 
tell thy ministers ; until every slumberer awake, every 
energy be aroused, and the way of life be pointed out to 
a perishing race ! 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 89 



SERMON IV. 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 



" And the thi?igs that thou hast heard of me among many 
witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who 
shall be able to teach others also.^ — 2 Timothy ii. 2. 

Christian Friends, 

We are assembled to remind one another of departed 
worth ; not that we may burn idolatrous incense to hu- 
man excellence, or forget that her brightest beams were 
but reflected — yea, refracted rays of her Redeemer's 
glory ; but that we may encourage and animate each 
other by recollecting those days when the Spirit descend- 
ed from on high to rekindle the fires almost extinguished 
upon the altars of the national Church, and by reviving 
the memories of those whose names are dear to the uni- 
versal Church. With the name of the Countess Selina 
we associate the idea of every thing exalted in Christian 
character, of entire consecration to Christ, of the true 
spirit of Catholicism and enlightened Christian liberality, 
that discriminates the essentials from the non-essentials 
of Christianity, and recognises the family likeness amid 
the vast variety of feature and complexion that individu- 
alizes the members of the household of Christ. We feel 
ourselves standing on a broad basis this day ; our spirits 
expand beneath the influence of the associations which 
this anniversary revives ; we leave the imprisonment of 
sect, burst its shackles, and tread on the confines of the 
day of love and light so long desired. We come, Chris- 

9 



90 SERMON IV. 

tian friends, to cherish an Institution dear to the heart of 
one of God's most distinguished servants. We come to 
sympathize with her holy desires, to mature her generous 
plans, and to adapt them to the exigencies of our age and 
the ever-varying developments of Providence. We cel- 
ebrate the anniversary of the Countess of Huntingdon's 
College ; and I feel assured that however I may fail in the 
expansion of the topic, I have not erred in choosing as 
the theme of your meditations the importance of learn- 
ing and piety in the gospel ministry. This sentiment 
was the corner-stone of the College. The earnest con- 
viction of its truth led to the generous efforts and sacri- 
fices which founded this Institution. 

The solemn trust of perpetuating the gospel ministry 
is committed to the Church. And her responsibility in 
the case appears very grave, when we regard either the 
good or the evil which has been produced respectively 
by a qualified or an unqualified, by a spiritual or a worldly 
ministry. The phases of the Church, in the successive 
periods of her history, are a faithful reflection of the 
competency or incompetency, of the intellectual and spi- 
ritual excellencies or defects of her pastors. By them 
the sacramental host has been trained for the sacred wars, 
and led to glorious triumphs; and by them Zion's citadel 
has been betrayed. They, who should have been her de- 
fence, have ingloriously opened her gates to the enemy, 
and the sacred place has been trodden by the feet of the 
profane. It was under the guidance of her faithful pas- 
tors and evangelists that she attained her primitive glory ; 
and it was under her vain and fanciful doctors, even in 
the vaunted "primitive Church," that she began to min- 
gle fragments of pagan philosophy with her pure creed, 
and pagan ceremonies with her simple rites. It was again 
under her learned and scriptural leaders that she came 
up from the wilderness of papal superstition, and error, 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 91 

and slavery, into spiritual light, and life, and liberty. By 
her devoted and qualified ministry she has maintained the 
successful contest with the various forms of infidelity at 
home, obliging it even to change its showing and shift 
its ground ; by them she is now maintaining probably the 
last struggle with paganism ; and by them must she fight 
that last great battle in which Christ shall destroy the 
man of sin by the sword of his mouth. The names and 
the virtues of a few from the myriads of her glorious 
leaders are left to the Church as one of the rich gifts of 
Providence ; and she may safely challenge the world to 
show the class of men who have done so much to estab- 
lish truth and virtue ; while, at the same time, the world 
may well challenge her to show a class of greater scour- 
ges than the ignorant, the fanatical, the worldly, and self- 
ish ministers of religion have been. The piety, the 
peace, the progress of the Church, and the temporal 
welfare of society, are connected more intimately with 
the character of the Christian ministry than with any 
other human cause. Paul understood this connexion. 
His views of the nature and influence of the embassy of 
reconciliation were large and profound. No man better 
understood the importance of the office, and the necessity 
of thorough qualification for it. His prophetic warnings 
show us how painful were his convictions of the evils 
that the Church must suffer, of the darkness and confusion 
that would settle upon her under teachers who should 
seek their own glory and not her good — under teachers 
who knew more of human speculation than of divine 
revelation. We are not surprised, accordingly, when we 
find so frequent reference to this important subject in his 
letters both to churches and to ministers. One of his 
chief sources of anxiety evidently was, the exposure of 
the Church to the bad instructions of incompetent preach- 
ers, and to the bad example of unholy pastors. The 



92 SERMON IV. 

history of the Church after his decease acquaints us more 
fully with the grounds of that solicitude. He must die, and 
his faithful pupils must die — the work must pass into other 
hands. "What, then, could he do to secure a succession 
of competent and faithful pastors to the Church?. He 
could Avrite, and leave on record to the end of time his 
views and his exhortations. He has done this ; and in 
proportion as the Church shall feel an interest in the sub- 
ject, in proportion as she shall give heed to his instruc- 
tions and warnings, and do what is assigned her for se- 
curing a competent ministry ; and in proportion as the 
existing race of ministers shall feel their responsibility, 
and rightly comprehend their duty in perpetuating their 
office j in that proportion will the Gospel be faithfully 
and successfully administered in the world j and we may 
say, it will produce its happy fruits. 

But it is time we leave the threshold of our subject. 
" The things that thou hast heard of me, the same com- 
mit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others 
also." I seize here the two characteristics, of fidelity 
and competency, which the apostle especially designates 
to his son Timothy in directing his choice of successors. 
And from it I conduct your meditations under the two 
topics of piety and ability to teach, as constituting the 
qualifications which the Church must both demand in the 
candidates for her sacred office, and seek instrumentally 
to impart and augment in the sons of the prophets. " The 
same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to 
teach others also." We shall direct our attention, first, 
to the intellectual department of ministerial qualifications, 
the ability to teach, 

FIRST PART. 

And here our proposition is, that the Church must 
secure a learned ministry. We do not mean to say that 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 93 

all her ministers must necessarily be men of such attain- 
ments, as to merit the title of learned. Piety, an intimate 
acquaintance with the Scriptures, good sense, and an ac- 
ceptable manner of instructing, may qualify her sons to 
do much good, to move in spheres less conspicuous, and 
consequently, in some respects less exposed to the 
temptations of ambition. Such men may edify the Church, 
may lead many to a knowledge of the Saviour ; their 
prayers may bring blessings to thousands of their fellow 
men. All this we believe, and rejoice to believe ; yet it 
remains true, that the Church is called upon, by the pro- 
vidence of her Lord, to secure a ministry profoundly 
learned, and disciplined in all the higher range of intel- 
lectual exertion. By the learning of the ministry, we 
mean to describe both knowledge and cultivation ; a 
knowledge of the Bible, and of all that can throw light 
upon its meaning ; a knowledge of the various shades of 
error which have misled men in past ages, and to which 
they are still exposed ; a knowledge of the human heart, 
as gained from the study of the Bible, of history, of our 
contemporaries, and of ourselves ; a knowledge of the 
dealings of God with his Church in each period of her 
history ; a knowledge of whatever bears upon the interests 
of man as a subject of God's moral government ; and a 
thorough discipline of mind, or the power of using the 
mental faculties in the highest exercise of which they are 
capable. We are aware of the evil of an undue depen- 
dence on learning. We are aware of the evils which it 
may do when separate from piety ; but for that we are 
not pleading. We know that all the great heresies which 
have misled mankind, have been originated by men of 
great philosophical acuteness, and generally by men of 
great learning ; that the nation, perhaps, the most pro- 
foundly learned, is now the great nursery of infidelity ; 
and that the schools they founded for the promotion of 

9* 



94 SERMON IT. 

piety and for the propagation of the gospel, are now 
turned to the subversion of the gospel, and to the esta- 
blishment of philosophy on its ruins. 

1. The mere knowledge of what he is to teach, is 
so varied and so extensive, that a minister must really be 
learned, to merit the title of a scribe well instructed, and 
able to bring forth from his storehouse things new and 
old. If this be doubted by any, let it be asked, what are 
ministers to teach, and where and how are they to find 
their message 1 They are to teach the substance of what 
God has revealed in a written volume. But that revela- 
tion was made in languages now not spoken. It was com- 
mitted to writing in those languages. Other writings 
were surreptitiously brought in to share its authority. 
Now, without entering upon this field of research, to some 
extent, how is a man of candid and inquiring mind to find 
assurance that he is proclaiming God's revelation 1 It 
may be said, many excellent ministers have never attend- 
ed to this subject. We admit it, and admit that the most 
of us now in the ministry feel the defects of our early 
education in this and other departments. And we so feel 
them, as to make us desire strongly that those to whom 
we commit the office, should enter more solidly and tho- 
roughly into the study of all that is fundamental to the 
Christian system. We desire to see a stronger and a 
better race of men succeed us. Sensible of intellectual 
and spiritual defects, we seek not to shield our pride by 
limiting our successors to the standard of our attainments. 
We do not say that other Christians may not content them- 
selves with the received canon of Sacred Scripture, and 
with the received translation ; but we do maintain, that 
he who proposes himself as a public champion for the 
truth of revealed religion, as a public teacher of the re- 
vealed will of God, ought to go nearer to the fountain. 
He ought not to content himself with receiving it at 






THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 95 

second hand. He is bound for his own sake, for the 
Church's sake, and from honesty to those whom he op- 
poses, and whose rejection of the Bible he so severely 
condemns, to prove to his own mind by candid and prayer- 
ful research, that he has the very word of God ; and to 
be able to say, not from translation, but from the words 
of inspiration, what are the doctrines of godliness and of 
eternal life. If any have not time for this, let them be 
considered the exceptions, not the models. Let them 
not decry learning ; and let not the Church itself act so 
inconsistent a part as to take advantage of the erudition 
and research of the men of other days, and then denounce 
this very erudition and research as contrary to the nature 
and design of the evangelical ministry. Let her not for- 
get her indebtedness to her Kennicotts, her Mills, and 
her Griesbachs ; no, not even to the German neologists, 
who have so solidly proved the accuracy of the manu- 
scripts from which our own translation is taken. Let us 
acknowledge the satisfaction we experience and the in- 
debtedness we feel to the men who, by great learning and 
great labour, have proved that the providence of God has 
so preserved the Scriptures in many languages and among 
many nations, before the invention of printing, that not a 
single important doctrine or sentiment is lost if we ex- 
punge from our translation all the passages in which the 
manuscripts of highest authority differ from one another. 
No ; I repeat it, Providence lays this necessity upon us. 
It has been by severe study and painstaking research 
that ancient manuscripts of the different versions of the 
Old Testament have been found and compared with the 
copies in the hands of the Jews. It is by much research 
and careful comparison that the various manuscripts of 
the New Testament have been examined. This funda- 
mental branch of biblical literature, a teacher of the Bible 
is bound to know, if he can. He ought not to be igno- 



96 SERMON IV. 

rant of the learned and subtle objections which have been 
made to the reception of the Bible as a divine revelation. 
He ought not to be ignorant of the strong and cumulative 
mass of evidence of its divine origin which places Chris- 
tianity on an unassailable rock. And receiving this reve- 
lation, he should be able to read it in its native tongue ; 
for no person who has read a book of great merit in one 
language, and then read its translation into another, can 
fail to have felt that much of its meaning and beauty, of 
its spirit and power have evaporated in the process of 
translating. The Hebrew and Greek Scriptures ought to 
become the familiar companions of a gospel minister. 
There is a sweetness, unction, and power in them, which 
can be felt, but not translated. The meaning may be 
expressed by circumlocution ; and the translation will 
thus be equally instructive as the original ; but it cannot 
be equally impressive either on the imagination or on the 
heart. 

2. The minister must be learned, for the defence of 
the truths of revelation against the learned. — We suppose 
him now prepared to instruct the sincere followers of 
Christ from his stores of biblical science — his rich, and 
varied, and well-arranged knowledge of the contents of 
the Bible. But Providence throws another class of ob- 
jectors in his path. These appeal to history and science 
to prove the falsity of Christianity as a pretended gift of 
God. They frame imposing propositions and arguments 
in philosophical form. These again are seducing the 
minds of the learned and reflecting among his hearers, 
by subtle errors apparently founded on the very word of 
God. And they come forward with their improved ver- 
sions, and new translations, and shrewd expositions, as- 
sailing the very foundations of the Christian's hope. And 
what shall this captain in the Lord's army do 1 Shall he 
turn pale, and say, I know I am right, but I do not fight 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 97 

with the carnal weapons of human reason and science 1 
So did not Paul on Mars' Hill ; so did he not with the 
Corinthian philosophers, who scoffed at the doctrine of a 
resurrection. So did not the early bishops of the Church, 
when Novatius and the Gnostics, when Pelagius and Arius 
lifted their deadly weapons against the gospel. So did 
not the great leaders of the Reformation. To him who 
seriously fears that God will not bless the employment 
of learning and of cultivated mind to defend the truths 
revealed in his word, I think it would be sufficient to cite 
the fact, that if great errors have sprung from men of 
great learning, it is by the learned, and by the learned 
alone, that those strong defences of the truth have been 
formed, which, by instructing the pastors of the churches, 
and guarding them from subtle and plausible error, have, 
through them, guarded, and guided, and strengthened the 
Church of God herself. We refer to the writings of Au- 
gustine against Pelagius, to the apologies of the Fathers, 
and to the galaxy of powerful minds, who, in the six- 
teenth and seventeenth centuries, so enriched our English 
theological literature. 

We enforce our position, by presenting an additional 
consideration from the arrangements of Providence. 

3. The great variey of minds to which a minister is 
to preach, creates the necessity for a great variety of 
mental furniture and discipline. — We have seen him a 
student of truth ; now we see him a student of sacred 
eloquence, or of the mode of presenting truth ; for it is 
one thing to know, and another to teach. The capacity 
for knowledge, and the attainment of knowledge, will 
not, of themselves, give that aptness to teach, which 
Paul says, should distinguish a bishop. We are sure, 
that with a reflecting mind, we should have no difference 
on this subject, except as to degrees. For whatever pre- 
judices may have arisen justly against wrong modes of 



98 SERMON IV. 

instructing in eloquence, there can be no doubt that some 
degree of instruction in it is important. This must be 
admitted fully, the instant you admit that no man ought 
to preach the gospel, who cannot speak his maternal lan- 
guage without violating the most commonly understood 
rules of grammar, or without the employment of such 
rude and vulgar terms as shock every person of true re- 
finement. In such a case you admit the whole of our 
principle. You might even be opposed in the abstract to 
human learning in the ministry, and especially to the 
study of eloquence ; but you admit here, the importance 
of instruction in grammar and propriety of utterance, 
which are two of the essential elements of eloquence. 
The difference between us, then, can only be this, that 
you want two of the lower branches of the sacred art j 
we want the whole range of its power consecrated to the 
service of God in the salvation of souls ; you are willing 
to have the unsystematic instruction of social inter- 
course, and the accidental cultivation of ordinary obser- 
vation ; we desire the regular, efficient instruction which 
will secure its end most surely and most speedily. 

The office of the pulpit is threefold — instruction, con- 
viction, and persuasion. 

And shall it be said that in every school but that of 
Christ, none should presume to be teachers but those who 
are well taught ; that every science, but that of the very 
Being himself who made all science, requires instructers 
thoroughly prepared ; and that this sublimest, deepest, 
richest, most important of all, may be taught to the world 
by the most superficial and indolent 1 No, none would 
maintain that ; none would assert that it is possible for 
any one to present the scheme of truth revealed in the 
Scriptures in all its dimensions, in all its internal harmo- 
ny of parts, and all its exterior harmony with man's na- 
ture and state, and with the visible part of creation, with- 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 99 

out much careful and well-directed study of the Scrip- 
tures themselves. The question really dividing us, might 
be, whether the study of any thing beyond the limits of 
the Bible itself were necessary. To resolve this, we 
must revert again to the fact that this revelation is made 
in two foreign languages to us ; and besides that, it is 
couched under the peculiarities of foreign customs, geo- 
graphy, proverbs, poetry, imagery, institutions, on which 
information is to be sought for from other sources, and 
new channels of information on which the providence of 
God is continually opening to the diligent students of his 
word. To take advantage of these, and to bring out of 
his treasure new things, the teacher of divine truth must 
be something more than simply a student of the Bible. 
And again, the Bible contains a system of moral philoso- 
phy to be applied to all the details of life, to all the com- 
plicated rights, interests, employments and relations of 
mankind. And shall one entirely ignorant of those re- 
lations, employments, and interests, pretend to guide the 
conscience of the world 1 Shall men learned in the his- 
tory of mankind, in the works of God, in the principles 
of moral government, be taught by those who appear ri- 
diculous in every attempt to illustrate God's word from 
his works 1 or will it be said, that all that rich source of 
illustration is to be excluded from the instructions of the 
pulpit 1 Has Paley's Natural Theology, have Chalmers' 
Astronomical Sermons, been of no use to the Church 1 
We plead for learning in the ministry. Such learning as 
comprehends a wide, profound, and harmonious view of 
revealed truths, sees the connexion of those truths with 
all the great temporal interests of man, and with all the 
profoundest subjects of human research. We want in- 
struction not only for the ignorant and the devout, but 
also for the learned and the indifferent. We desire to 
see men attracted by the sublimity and simplicity of the 



100 SERMON IV. 

gospel fairly presented, to listen to the statement of its 
claims upon their hearts. But the word of God is given 
also for conviction. Here we advance to a higher func- 
tion of the ministry. Instruction contemplates men as 
willing learners ; but conviction refers to a hostile atti- 
tude. The minister is to break in upon the agreeable 
slumbers of conscience, and arouse her to the painful 
task of reproach and condemnation. A Nathan is to 
sound in royal ears, " Thou art the«man ;" a John to stand 
in high places, and say, " It is not lawful for thee." Sin 
is to be rebuked, not in the style of the Satirists, simply 
reproving one or another form of outward vice 5 but na- 
tions are to be called upon to repent, like Nineveh ; the 
deep depravity of the heart is to be exposed, the fearful 
position of man as a rebel is to be demonstrated, the mad 
career of the world is to be stopped, the voice of its 
mirth is to be hushed, and one profound and universal 
sentiment of self-condemnation and fear is to seize the 
human family. And this is to be effected through the 
gospel ministry. But it must be occupied by bolder men, 
and abler men, and holier men than we are. And not 
only the pulpit, but the mighty energies of the press are 
to be called into action, to make the world sensible of its 
true condition, and of its need of the gospel. The false 
views of human character, and of life, contained in the 
current literature and philosophy of the day, are to be 
proved false ; the veil thrown over the eyes of conscience 
is to be torn away, and thunder-peals are to be constantly 
sounding in her sleeping ears. God has promised it, and 
the day is hastening ; but first in the rank of the means 
of accomplishing it, is the elevation of the standard of 
ministerial qualifications. The grasp of the Church must 
be bolder, her aim higher. She must have Augustines 
and Chrysostoms, whose eloquent and holy appeals can 
reach the highest minds, and reaching, can disturb and 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 101 

convince of sin ; Pauls, who can plead before those whom 
talent or station exalts above the reach of ordinary 
minds, and pleading, can make them tremble before God ; 
sacred orators who have comprehended the logic of rev- 
elation, and can apply it to bring the whole guilty race, 
high and low, learned and ignorant, self-condemned be- 
fore God. 

Another function of the ministry is persuasion. The 
power of persuasion depends on many natural qualifica- 
tions, but much more on their proper cultivation. This 
may, perhaps, seem to some a bold proposition, as applied 
to the regeneration of the human heart; for it is easy to 
take such a view of the efficiency of divine power, and to 
entertain so jealous a regard for its sacred prerogative, 
as to make it even blasphemous to speak of the power of 
human persuasion as having any tendency to renew the 
soul in holiness ; or to speak of the training of the 
schools as in any degree calculated to augment the suc- 
cess of a minister in winning souls to Christ. To all this 
sentiment, however much we respect the piety that ori- 
ginates, we cannot the less deprecate the ignorance that 
encourages it, and the tendency it has to limit the useful- 
ness of the gospel ministry. We must content ourselves 
here with denying its truth and justness, rather than with 
proving its falseness. It appears to us self-evident that 
God has established a < onnection between the imparted 
energies of his quickening Spirit and a certain adapted- 
ness in the instrument, just as truly as between the quick- 
ening energies of his physical power, and the more or 
less skilful employment of agricultural implements. And 
to deny this is to declare that the most slovenly and dis- 
gusting manner in a preacher, the most harsh and grating 
pronunciation, the most absurd jumbling of figures of 
rhetoric, the most ridiculous miscalling of men and things, 
is as fit an instrument of converting souls as the elo- 

10 



10t SERMON IV. 

quence of Whitefield. Oh, no; we need not defend this* 
position, that the art of persuasion is one of the great in-* 
struments appointed of God for the conversion of the 
world, an art for which we have the faculties by birth , 
but which require development by culture, and which are 
capable of an indefinite degree of cultivation. 

This holy art of teaching, convincing, persuading, de* 
mands habits of severe study and discipline. The work 
of the ministry is pre-eminently an intellectual work f 
requiring the highest efforts of mind, and giving scope to 
all its faculties. And we are persuaded, that many who 
entered it with a wrong estimate of the importance of 
preparatory study, have since found their mistake, when 
it was too late to provide a remedy. Intellectual discour- 
agement, and dull monotony, in his work, is now the pain- 
ful lot of many a pastor who spends a week of active em- 
ployment, but not in such a preparation for the pulpit as 
enlarges, and liberalizes, and refreshes his own mind. 
He sees every subject in the same light from week to 
week, turns over his Bible, and finds everywhere the 
same texts suggesting to his mind the same trains of 
thought, and the very same phrases. He has refused to 
acquaint himself with the varied stores of knowledge that 
God placed within his reach ; he has neglected to disci- 
pline and develope the higher and richer faculties of his 
mind ; and now he reaps the bitter fruits of his ignorance, 
or of his sincere but misguided zeal for God's honour. And 
I will not venture to say how much affinity I think there 
is between intellectual and spiritual dulness and monot- 
ony. But in all this we have spoken only of pastors, be- 
cause it was concerning them that we have imagined we 
should have to contend with the greatest amount of 
avowed or secret opposition to a learned ministry. Now 
we apprehend no such objections in reference to transla- 
tions of the Scriptures for the heathen ; and to the wri- 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY, 103 

ters of commentaries and works of divinity for the Church 
and for her pastors* 

There is a fourth consideration to enforce our views. 

4>. The pastor is to superintend important, extended, 
and complicated interests, which require both solid learn- 
ing and sound discipline of mind. 

The spiritual interests of individuals, with all the va- 
riety of their characters, attainments, and circumstances, 
and their complicated and delicate cases of conscience ; 
the spiritual interests of families, of the young ; the care 
of his own Church, the general interests of education, the 
general interests of the Church ; a knowledge of the ac- 
tual position of his fellow men, and of the bearing of the 
literature and political movements of the day upon the 
interests of Christ's kingdom ; a thorough acquaintance 
with the increasingly important efforts of the Church to 
extend the gospel to distant nations, with the relations of 
these efforts to their institutions and to the various civil 
governments ; the formation of a sound literature to su- 
persede the corrupt influence of that which impiety and 
skepticism have generated ; these are among the duties 
which God in his providence assigns to the gospel min- 
ister. For if he has them not in charge, no one has ; and 
if he has, then we strenuously maintain that he cannot 
know too much of man as he has been, and of man as he 
is 5 of the history of the world, and of the history of Chris- 
tianity ; of the history of his country, of its political con- 
dition, its literature, and its institutions. 

But we have proposed a more distinct reference to the 
objections which may be made to these views. It may 
be said, that they promote pride and dependence on man. 
But we reply, not necessarily. An ignorant man raised 
to a station of influence is in much greater danger of 
pride, than a man of learning. Ignorance is no security 
against pride 3 nor are learning and piety incompatible, 



104 SEEMON IT* 

as has been shown in numberless instances. And as to 
dependence upon human power, was there ever a case in 
which there was more danger than in that of Paul 1 His 
gifts and endowments were of the first order, and the 
Church was in danger of placing undue confidence in 
them j yet the Head of the Church conferred them on 
him. 

It may be said, Paul declared that ke renounced all de- 
pendence on human learning and eloquence. The same 
kind of distinction must be made here, as in the cases of 
fasting, prayer, and alms-giving. When our Saviour 
commands us not to pray in public to be seen of men, he 
means not to prevent public prayer, but to correct its 
abuse. Paul employed true philosophy and true elo- 
quence, in opposition to the vain systems and the showy 
declamation, which were the boast of the Grecian schools 
of his day. Surely he would never have objected to the 
employment of the simple and manly eloquence of De- 
mosthenes in preaching the gospel : surely he would not 
have required of that orator, if he had lived in Paul's 
day, had been converted and brought to preach the gos- 
pel, to employ in the pulpit less good sense, less know- 
ledge of the human heart, than he had used in the forum. 
Paul determined to know nothing but a crucified Saviour 
as the theme of his sermons, and not to speak in the en- 
ticing words of man's wisdom ; but he, nevertheless, 
availed himself of his profound knowledge of the Jewish 
law, and of the human heart ; of his acquaintance with the 
great principles of natural theology, with heathen poets 
and heathen philosophers, to reach the consciences and 
hearts of his hearers. 

It may further be said, human learning has no tendency 
to convert the soul. This is at last the important objec- 
tion ; an objection which, perhaps, often recurs to the 
sincere friend of ministerial learning. The work of con- 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 105 

version seems so exclusively the prerogative of the Holy- 
Spirit, that no possible connexion can be seen between it 
and the study of the classics, of mathematics, and of 
philosophy. Perhaps, too, our theological students them- 
selves often lose sight of this connexion ; and just so far 
their studies benefit their minds at the expense of their 
hearts. 

Let us ask ourselves, whether in this case we do not 
exaggerate the truth 1 It is true, that God converts the 
soul ; but does he do it by means or without means 1 and 
if by means, does he make use of human faculties, and of 
human language, or not ] If he makes use of human lan- 
guage, then we should say, from the analogy of all his 
works, the more perfectly that language is employed, the 
more calculated is it to secure the end. I appeal to the 
common sense of the objecting Christian, on two of the 
simplest elements of eloquence. Perspicuity is one. 
Now, suppose a very pious preacher to speak of the love 
of Christ, but to utter himself so obscurely as not to make 
himself understood ; and another, of equal piety, explains 
this great subject clearly, which is most likely to be em- 
ployed of God for converting men 1 Might not the one as 
well speak in the Hebrew language \ And here we reply to 
the very plausible objection, of what use can the mathe- 
matics be to the theological student 1 Perhaps of little 
or none, in their application ; but their study seems ex- 
actly what we now have referred to, precision of thought, 
and perspicuity of language. Again, suppose a man to 
speak of the wrath of God in a dull and sleepy manner ; and 
another to thunder in the ears of the careless, as we may 
suppose Baxter and Alleine to have done; is it not evi- 
dent that the Holy Spirit may be expected to reach the 
heart more effectually by the one than by the other 1 
And yet, although the professor of eloquence cannot give 
a soul, he can teach the soul to utter its sentiments in the 

10* 



106 SERMON IV. 

most impressive way. He can teach his pupil to put away 
the unnatural and unoratorical habits he may have con- 
tracted. On this important topic, we carry you back to 
the apostolic college. Our blessed Redeemer opened a 
kind of peripatetic, or itinerant theological school. And 
never did men possess such a teacher, and never were 
such advances made, as under that instruction, This is 
evident, when we compare their sentiments as expressed 
in their letters, with those for which Christ so often re- 
buked them in the beginning of their studies. But if 
learning was not necessary, why not send them out as 
soon as they were called 1 Why must they be three 
years at school, under such a teacher, equivalent to 
ten times as many years under others'? It may be 
said, they were to be witnesses of his life and works ; 
they were to be disciplined in piety : all true ; and yet 
equally true is it, that they were all this time rapidly 
learning. And yet, even that was not sufficient ; they 
had not learning enough, when leaving the school of 
Christ ; and the Holy Ghost himself, by miraculous power, 
must complete their instruction, and place them, in some 
respects, among the most learned ; that is, by at once 
imparting the knowledge of ten or fourteen languages. 
It may be said, too, that Christ did not teach philosophy, 
nor pay any attention to intellectual discipline. And yet 
it is well worthy of notice, that the distinguished apostle, 
who was selected to preach to philosophers and courtiers, 
was taken from the schools. But to refute this objection 
by fact, let us look at modern times, and ask, what class 
of learned men have been more blessed in their ministry 
than Doddridge, and Watts, and Whitefield, and Wesley, 
of England ; Edwards, and Bellamy, and Dwight of Amer- 
ica ] Who has filled higher places of usefulness than the 
learned Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, and Knox! Bun- 
yan, it may be said, is an exception j no, he is a confir- 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 107 

mation, for he had what many cannot now acquire but in 
part, even by the severest study. If all uneducated men 
can write a Pilgrim's Progress, our argument loses 
much of its power. The same may be said of Fuller. It 
was the solid learning and mental discipline of those men 
and not their ignorance, that God employed for the good 
of his Church ; and we are impressed by the fact, that the 
peculiar dealings of God with men who were to accom- 
plish extraordinary good, secured uncommon discipline, 
both of mind and heart. So it was with Moses, with the 
forerunner, and even with our Lord ; so with Daniel, 
Ezekiel, and Jeremiah. They were taken to high places 
of the universe, from whence they could catch glorious 
views of God and his plans. Oh that our theological 
schools may be like their sacred retreats, from whence, 
by profound and tranquil reflection, by earnest prayer, by 
special intercourse with God, by large and lofty views of 
their commission, our future ministers may be prepared 
for going forth to move, to teach, to bless, and save 
the world ! The necessity of such institutions was felt 
under the Old Testament, and led to forming the schools 
of the prophets. They were early revived under the New 
Testament, perhaps in Alexandria, soon after the death 
of the apostles. They are now the hope of the Church, 
and must become more and more the object of her prayers 
and affections. We have said, perhaps, too much upon 
the necessity of learning ; not too much absolutely, but 
so much as to expose ourselves to the danger of appear- 
ing to estimate it above piety. 

But this brings us to our 

SECOND PART. 

We maintain with equal earnestness that the Church 
must secure a pious ministry. "The same commit thou 
to faithful men," says Paul to Timothy, men faithful to 



108 SERMON IV. 

God and to his Church ; faithful to their trust and to the 
souls of men. And this faithfulness demands for its first 
and its last element — piety. A learned ministry, without 
piety, is even a greater curse than an ignorant one. To 
prove that every minister ought to be a converted man, 
nay, a man of uncommon piety, as much in moral stature 
above his brethren, as Saul was in physical proportions 
above his 5 to prove that a minister must be a man of true 
piety, is to prove that our bodies need life, that without 
his soul, man is but a corpse ; that without the sun, the 
world is in darkness and misery. The men who assume 
the sacred office without a renewed heart, are utterly un- 
acquainted, both w r ith the nature of its duties, and with its 
awful responsibilities. We know that God may have 
converted many souls by the preaching of unconverted 
men ; but his gracious overruling of human depravity 
should never be abused by man to encourage himself in 
sin. But there is no room for reasoning on the subject. 
He that believes in the reality and universal necessity of 
conversion, must acknowledge that ministers are included 
in that all ; and must admit its importance above all to 
the minister. Every branch of his duties, every issue of 
his ministry, bears prominent on its front the urgent ne- 
cessity of great piety. Whether we consider him as com- 
ing from God to man, or as turning from man in his in- 
fatuation and man in his feebleness to supplicate God in 
his behalf j whether we consider the nature of the subjects 
he is to teach as pre-eminently matters of experience, or 
the power of example ; whether we look at time and its 
trials, or at the judgment and its eternal issues, we see 
every thing urging on the ministers of Christ, piety, 
eminent piety, a close resemblance to their Master, the 
intimacy of holy communion with him, the power of a 
holy sympathy with him, and the efficiency of prevailing 
intercession with the Father. The ambassador of Christ 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 109 

goes forth, from the mediatorial throne, chosen, qualified, 
commissioned, to a world ignorant of God, of his grace, 
and of his wrath ; blind alike to his holy law and to his 
scheme of mercy, he goes to a Avorld blinded and deluded 
by a subtle spirit. He is to plead and remonstrate against 
that world's rebellion ; but how shall he do it sincerely 
and successfully if his heart sympathizes not with the 
government of Jehovah] How absurd as well as hypo- 
critical is the eloquence of a man who has never laid 
down his own rebellious weapons, never yet even ac- 
knowledged his own rebellion, and yet pretends with 
tears and solemn entreaties to persuade his fellow men to 
repent ! The more eloquent and the more pathetic, the 
more absurd j and every convert under such preaching is 
but a witness against his own impenitence. The man 
who proclaims to this wicked world the offer of pardon 
must deeply feel the evil of its rebellion, must earnestly 
sympathize with the holy government of God ; sin must 
be the burden of his own soul ; he must fear that wrath 
he announces in words of terror to others ; for perhaps 
there is no infidelity so perfectly effective as that which 
is concealed under solemn and pompous words about the 
wrath of God, where the preacher's soul is not moved at 
the time in view of that terrific reality. It accustoms 
men to feel that it is a trifle, while they escape the re- 
proach of their own conscience by appearing to acknow- 
ledge its reality. Yes, I may say, it is one of the grand 
impediments to the progress of religion, that so many 
professing to be its ministers have accustomed the peo- 
ple to be as much unaffected by it as they are themselves. 
They perpetuate the dreadful pestilence of religious in- 
sensibility by mere contagion ; and under them grows up 
the form of godliness without its power. God deliver us 
from heartless ministers ! The man who means to awa- 
ken the conscience of this slumbering world must know 



110 SERMON IV* 

much of the holiness and the terrors of God's law, have 
awful views of his majesty; he must have studied with 
his heart in Gethsemane and on Calvary ; he must know 
the meaning of that exclamation, "If these things be done 
in the green tree, what shall he done in the dry I" 

He who would meet the inquiring soul and lead it to 
Christ must know the way by experience. Here the 
power of the heart is peculiarly employed by the Spirit 
of God. He who would talk profitably of repentance, 
must talk of it experimentally. He who would lead the 
young convert in the first steps of his Christian walk, 
must talk like an old traveller of a road that he knows by 
having traversed it ; he must meet with something like 
parental sympathy, the fears, the joys, the hopes, the 
doubts, of the babe in Christ. He who would be a leader 
to the Church of Christ must be an example of all he 
teaches ; he must not say, Go to the cross for pardon, 
but, Come to the cross. He must know the snares of 
Satan, that he may point them to others, and he must 
learn them from his own heart. He must be taught of 
God to teach God's word. He must know the trials pe- 
culiar to Christians to sympathize with his flock ; and 
when called to the common trials of life, he must show 
how to sustain them. How powerful were the appeals 
of Paul to the Church when he could say, " Follow us as 
we follow Christ !" 

The providence of God is evidently preparing the 
Church for a wider and more important field of action 
than she has occupied since the apostolic days ; and none 
but men of an apostolic spirit will be prepared to guide 
her in the arduous conflict and the mighty work that lies 
before her. 

And if this aspect of the ministry presents the neces* 
sity of piety, how much more so does the other in which 
we behold the minister going from men to God, to inter- 






TH£ CHRISTIAN MINISTRY, 111 

cede in their behalf. It is well said by a French divine, 
More than half a minister's work must be accomplished 
in his closet t it is an affair between him and his God. 
Each Christian must be a man of prayer ; but chiefly he 
who undertakes to negotiate between God and man, in 
the matter of salvation. The life of all our services, the 
power of our appeals, the light of our instructions, the 
efficacy of our consolations, the savour of our example, 
all depend upon the degree of our communion with God. 
We are bound to live in view of both worlds, to cherish 
the sentiments of heaven, while we live on earth; we are 
like ambassadors to a rebel province, who by constant 
correspondence with the sovereign and his loyal courtiers, 
preserve ourselves from contracting the spirit of rebel- 
lion, while we deeply sympathize with the wretched con- 
dition of our rebel fellow-subjects. And where does the 
pastor tread more closely in the steps of the Great High 
Priest than when, with the names of his people on his 
heart, he is before the sprinkled mercy-seat 1 The Church 
ought to look with much anxiety to this point; that her 
ministers be men of prayer, of eminent prayerfulness. 
The promise concerning the days of her prosperity is — 
" I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, who 
shall never hold their peace, day nor night." The divine 
direction hence is — " Ye, the Lord's remembrancers, keep 
not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish and till 
he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." 

But I must close this too protracted exercise, by 
bringing the subject to this practical conclusion : that the 
Church has a most important part to act in securing both 
the learning and the piety of her ministry. As to the 
first, she is to sustain her theological colleges, and de- 
mand of them an efficient course of intellectual training. 
As to the second, let her distinctly see that it is that 



112 sermon m 

alone which makes learning valuable, and that in past 
ages Satan has perpetually gained an advantage by mak- 
ing her go into one extreme or the other : that of having 
learning without piety, or piety without learning. And 
let her chiefly see what part she has to act in securing 
the piety of her ministers. We may specify several dis» 
tinct duties — prayer for unconverted youth. 

In America, we are made to feel the necessity of that, 
and are taught by Providence to pray the Lord of the 
harvest that he would send forth labourers into the har- 
vest. We have not ministers enough to meet our spirit- 
ual wants, and the wants of the Missionary societies. 
Driven, therefore, to look to God in behalf of our un- 
converted and educated youth, we have set apart days of 
prayer for this object. And the Lord has signally an- 
swered our requests. Let British Churches remember 
that there are not ministers enough to supply the tenth 
part of the world with pastoral instructions. But let 
them chiefly remember that we are deficient not in num- 
bers only, but also in ministerial graces. We must give 
the Lord no rest until his ministers love one another 
more, are less given to sects and more to souls ; until 
they come to greater simplicity and activity, and power 
and efficiency. We suggest also special prayers for the- 
ological colleges. We urge the importance of exalting 
the standard of piety before young Christians by the ex- 
ample of the Church, showing those who are to preach 
the gospel how to live for Christ. Every day that the 
candidate for the ministry passes under your roof, every 
time he sits at your board, he is receiving impressions 
which may affect his ministry. He learns from your re- 
marks on ministers and sermons, what the Church expects 
of both. 

Christian friends, who revere the memory of her whom 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 113 

the Head of the Church raised up in a time of spiritual 
death and darkness, to encourage and even guide his 
faithful ministers ; remember this college, her Benjamin, 
the child of her right hand. It needs your pecuniary aid ; 
with that aid it may take its proper position amid the 
kindred institutions that are doing so much to raise the 
qualifications of the sacred ministry. It was liberally, 
nobly endowed. Every thing that heart devised was plan- 
ned on a broad scale. And yet a college is not the result 
of the labours of one hand. It is enough for one to found 
it ; posterity, who are to reap its rich advantages, must 
mature and perfect it. To accomplish all that she de- 
signed, to finish what she began, requires a spirit of equal 
liberality with her own. Who has her spirit 1 who counts 
the cause of Christ all his care, as she did 1 who is pre- 
pared to tread in her path of self-denial and faith 1 Who 
sympathizes with her zeal for God and the Church 1 Come, 
brethren, come to our help ; come, I would say, to her 
help, and enable the Directors of the College to execute 
their admirable plans. 

But important as these plans are, they respect chiefly 
the elevation of the standard of learning and intellectual 
discipline ; for the other and higher benefits, they look 
beyond their plans to the sovereign grace of God, to 
Jesus, the Head of his Church, with whom is the residue 
of the Spirit. And to-day they commission me to appeal 
to your hearts in behalf of the college, the directors, the 
pupils, the teachers. Their desire is, that the Holy 
Spirit may be the great teacher here ; that Jesus would 
abide with them by that Spirit, that he would teach them 
the preciousness of his gospel, and how to preach it. 

Christians, pray much for this school, that here may 
be trained the sons of thunder and the sons of consolation. 

The Church should look with deep solicitude to these 
schools of the prophets ; for a perishing world seems to 

11 



114* SERMON IV. 

cast towards them an imploring look ; the perishing hea- 
then are crying as of old — " Come over and help us." 
And they ask for spiritual men, men of prayer, of faith, 
of zeal \ men, in a word, whom God shall call, commis- 
sion, and bless. 

Brethren, pray for the College. 






MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 115 



SERMONV. 



THE NATURE AND INFLUENCE OF MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 



" And they brought unto him also infants, that he would 
touch them. But when his disciples saw it, they rebuked 
them. But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer 
little children to come unto me, and forbid them not y 
for of such is the kingdom of God." — Luke xviii. 15, 16. 

The prince of darkness has fearfully extended his 
empire over the whole human family ; and the Son of 
God, the Prince of peace, has come to " destroy the 
works of the devil," to open the prison-door to the cap- 
tive, and let the prisoner go free. He has come, with the 
voice of authority, to command the prisoner to escape 
from bondage, and with the voice of tender invitation to 
entreat him to leave his vassalage and disown his allegiance 
to Satan. And there are two remarkable features in all 
his commands and invitations ; the one is, that they re- 
gard all classes of men, without respect to any of the 
distinctions that pertain to the present and temporary 
forms of society j and the other feature is, that they 
extend to human nature in every age of its existence, 
from its earliest stages and its first developments. This 
feature, the disciples of Christ did not at first understand ; 
they supposed, that the kingdom which our Lord had 
come to establish was of such a nature, that it required 
the full maturity of the understanding to appreciate its 
advantages, and to enter upon the discharge of its duties. 
Hence, (as you may suppose his group principally to have 



116 SERMON V. 

consisted of mothers,) when mothers, obeying that ma- 
ternal instinct, which often is more wise than the sound 
deductions of philosophy, (sound in the eyes of those 
who make them,) that maternal instinct which felt for 
the little ones, felt their helplessness and their want, and 
had learned the power and goodness of the great Ke- 
deemer — when they drew nigh and presented their infants 
to him, to come within the blessed sphere of his benig- 
nity and mercy, the disciples interposed, and rejected the 
infants and rebuked the mothers. But Jesus said, Suffer 
these little ones to come to me ; let no man forbid them ; 
the kingdom that I am establishing, reaches even to the 
infantile state of human existence ; little children, too, 
are to be the objects of my grace and of my redeeming 
power : ( ' Suffer little children to come unto me." 

The first duty that devolves upon those who have the 
care of human beings, is of course physical ; it pertains 
to the animal, the material part of human nature, because 
that is first developed. The next development is unques- 
tionably moral ; the child begins to feel, before he mani- 
fests much understanding. It is unquestionable, that the 
conscience is developed much earlier, than those whose 
observation has not been specifically directed to this 
point are prepared to believe ; it is certain that the heart 
is very early developed, and God seems, in the very man- 
ner of the development of the faculties of human nature 
at successive periods, to indicate the kind of care, the 
kind of instruction, and the kind of influence, which 
should be brought to bear upon human nature. Last of 
all seems to come the higher range of the intellectual 
powers. 

The first duty, touching the character and interest of 
man as a moral being, is to bring him under the moral 
government of Jesus Christ. The first duty with the 
mind of man is to make him understand and feel his want 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 117 

and his guilt as a sinner. The first and most important 
lesson that a mother can convey to the heart and the un- 
derstanding of her child, is, that he is the degenerate 
shoot of a degenerate vine, and that in Christ alone is his 
help. His little mind should first begin to understand the 
story of redeeming and incarnate love— the history of 
Him who became an infant, and then the " Man of sor- 
rows," and then the bleeding Victim, and then the living 
Intercessor and the omnipotent King, to raise us from 
our ruin ; and the first attractions of the little heart, be- 
yond the father and the mother that begat and that nur- 
ture, should be to the great Benefactor, that has come to 
redeem. " Suffer your little ones to come to me," said 
Jesus : from them that are indifferent, and from them that 
have objections to them, he seems to turn to mothers, and 
say, Bring your little ones to me. 

The first duty to man, as an immortal being and the 
subject of God's moral government, is to induce him, 
just as rapidly as his affections and will are developed, to 
break the bands that bind him to the kingdom of dark- 
ness, and bring him an intelligent and a voluntary subject 
into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus, to teach him to love, 
to teach him to obey, to teach him to serve his " God 
manifest in the flesh." And it is an interesting object of 
investigation, to see what full provision God has made 
for the reclaiming of man from his apostacy, the intro- 
duction and the conservation of man in " the kingdom of 
his dear Son" — and that, from the earliest period of his 
existence. 

There is something very wonderful in the family con- 
stitution ; there is something in it, which even the Church 
herself has not fully understood, but which there are many 
indications in Providence that she is going to understand 
more fully. There is more power in the family constitu- 
tion, there is more moral power in a mother, than the world 

11* 



118 SERMON V. 

has begun to conceive of, than even Christian mothers 
have yet begun fully to apprehend. And as they advance 
in faith on God's promises — as they rise in the strength of 
a holy confidence, that seizes the promise of an unchang- 
ing God — as they become intelligent in those great pur- 
poses of his moral government, which pertain to us, and 
which are essential to direct us in the right discharge of 
duty — we have no question that the moral power of the 
mother will rise ; and just as far as we get away from 
Paganism, and all its degradation of the female sex — just 
as far as we get away from the foolish and romantic ideas 
of woman, that prevailed in the days of chivalry — we 
shall come to the clear and glorious light of Christianity, 
and woman will be, what God meant she should be in his 
hand, the regenerator of the human race. 

There is a peculiarity in the maternal feeling, that no 
man, who feels himself identified with the interests of the 
human race, can observe without himself feeling the deep- 
est interest. There is something in a mother's love, that 
cannot have been unintended ; there is a reason for that 
peculiar delicacy and tenderness — for even that tender- 
ness of tone, which we cannot imitate ; there is a mean- 
ing in the fact, that the musical scale of a mother's voice 
is pitched differently from ours. It is one of God's great 
instruments, for fitting her to reach man in those periods 
of his existence, when every thing is tender in his body 
and in his soul. 

There is an affinity between the feelings of a mother 
and a child, that does not exist in kind or degree between 
the father and the child, indicating a peculiarity in the 
duty and a peculiarity in the responsibility. I may say 
in passing here, (because I deem it of importance,) that 
perhaps there will become, for a time, extravagant and 
exaggerated and unharmonious and unauthorized views of 
the duty of mothers, and fathers will forget their peculiar 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 119 

station— for it is one of great peculiarity, and it is one of 
equal responsibility different in kind. I wish not to en- 
courage any exaggerated view ; I wish not to roll more 
burdens upon the tender sex, than God has placed ; but 
my specific duty will lead me peculiarly to speak and 
alone to speak of maternal duty. 

There is something in the entire helplessness of hu- 
man nature, in the entire dependence of human nature — 
there is something in the imitative propensities of chil- 
dren — there is something in that perfect confidence, that 
characterizes children — which fits them to come so fully, 
so entirely, under the kind and powerful influence of the 
enlightened and sanctified maternal heart ; and the noblest 
object on the footstool of God is a Christian mother, mould- 
ing human nature in the first stages of its earthly and of 
its immortal existence. Oh ! that I might have light from 
God, to help even mothers this day to estimate their high 
calling and their holy commission. 

No fruit of sin has been more fatal, than the misun- 
derstanding of female duty and female character. One 
of the striking characteristics of all heathen lands is the 
condition of woman. When the Brahmin priest was re- 
proached by the missionary, because he saw a woman 
dragging her entire length from the point of commence- 
ment of her dreadful pilgrimage to the temple — (it lay 
entirely through a large tract covered with mud, and she 
was dragging her body through the filth) — " There !" 
said the missionary, " that is one of the fruits of your 
system !" " Well, what is that V replied the Brahmin ; 
" it is only a woman !" That tells the characteristic fea- 
ture of their dark and debasing system ; " it is only a 
woman!" And what means the Turkish harem, where 
woman is but the animal 1 What means it 1 the light of 
Christianity has not shone. What is the present moral 
and social condition of France — France, that made the 



120 SERMON V. 

desperate experiment of rejecting Christianity 1 It is a 
fact, that even the French language itself is destitute of 
the sweet word Home, and all its sacred, tender associa- 
tions. I rejoice to say that God is doing great things 
for France ; but I speak of it now as a nation, on the 
whole — a nation of mighty intellect, a nation of immense 
intellectual power and progress — but a nation, that as a 
nation has not a domestic life ; and woman is not known 
in France (not known in France as a nation) as she is in 
England and in the colonies and the countries that have 
sprung from England. And I rejoice to say, that French 
writers are beginning to tell their nation the truth — 'Un- 
til you estimate woman and the marriage contract, and 
the marriage relation and the maternal relation different- 
ly, it is in vain that you essay the changes of political 
government ; we must have a change at the fireside, and 
we must begin to have a sacred home.' 

But although it is evident, that the nations which 
speak the English language are in advance of the rest of 
the world on this momentous subject, we have no reason 
for boasting ; and it will but injure us to reflect upon that 
fact, if we do not besides reflect upon the fact that we 
are very, very far below the light we have, and very far 
from discharging our duties. I speak even of the higher 
classes of female mind ; I speak even of our Christian 
mothers ; and I say it with the profound respect that I 
feel in my heart for the mothers in Israel — that even they 
have much, very much to learn — much, very much to 
attain. 

I wish, in this stage of the subject, to direct your at- 
tention to a very remarkable prophecy — remarkable as 
being the closing up of the wonderful series of prophe- 
cies in the ancient Testament. It is in the book of Mal- 
achi, the last chapter, and the closing verses : — 

" Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 121 

the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord ; 
and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the chil- 
dren, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I 
come and smite the earth with a curse." 

I understand that prophecy to involve two points. 
The first is, that Christianity (the first meaning of the 
prophecy of course referring to its introduction, and its 
secondary meaning to its expansion and more complete 
influence on the human race) — that the first influence of 
the introduction and the chief influence of the spreading 
of Christianity in the world is to restore parental affec- 
tion. You recollect, that Paul has said, that one of the 
characteristics of the heathen is that they are " without 
natural affection ;" and you recollect, that when our mis- 
sionaries went to the Sandwich Islands, they found them 
rapidly undergoing depopulation by "infanticide, and 
mothers would dig the graves of their own infants yet 
living, bury them, throw the earth upon them, spread the 
mat over them, and (while the child was perhaps yet 
struggling) eat their meal in self-complacency ;" that is 
the stern picture of man without the Bible, and that in 
greater or less degree pervades all Pagan countries and 
every country just in proportion as the gospel of the Son 
of God fails of effect ; and the first meaning of this pro- 
phecy I understand to be the restoration of parental love. 
And the second I take to be the proper inclination of pa- 
rental love. For now the grand evil in Christian coun- 
tries is not that parents do not love their children, but 
that their love is often the ruin of their children. Mis- 
guided parental love now characterizes nominally Chris- 
tian countries. The great care of the greater part of 
parents is for the earthly welfare of their children ; but 
when the Spirit of God shall come, as predicted in Mala- 
chi, parents will begin to feel that their children are im- 
mortal, and that they are to train them for glory and im- 



122 SERMON V. 

mortality, and not for honour, the bubble that bursts in 
the hand of him that seizes it — and not for the pamper- 
ing of the flesh — and not for the attainment of the sta- 
tion, from which death can cast them down to perdition, 
but for the attainment of those seats of glory, from 
which he shall never be cast out that once has pos- 
session by grace. The restoration of parental affection 
and the guidance of parental affection are to characterize 
the advancing march of Christianity through our sinful, 
wretched world. 

In every age of Christianity there have undoubtedly 
been individual parents that have understood (to a re- 
markable degree, compared with those around them) 
their parental duties. We mean not to say, that there 
are not now in the churches a great many mothers, that 
have a very wide, comprehensive, active view of parental 
duty ; we mean not to say, that there are not now in the 
churches women, who, if their character and their mater- 
nal history and their domestic life could be held out to 
the world, might be a model to the world. We speak 
not of these blessed exceptions, we speak of the general 
fact ; and all the remarks which we make upon the sub- 
ject, must be understood in their general accuracy and 
general bearing. But we believe that a day is dawning, 
like the day prophesied by Malachi. And one of the first 
fruits, perhaps, of the wide awakening of the consciences 
of mothers and the hearts of mothers has been the for- 
mation of Maternal Associations. 

Association ! The world is just beginning to under- 
stand its power, in some of the highest interests of man. 
And I confess it was not without surprise, coming from a 
country in which these associations for mothers are rapid- 
ly spreading, and coming from a Church in the bosom of 
which I have witnessed from year to year their blessed 
influence — it was not without surprise, that I found intel- 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 123 

ligent and devoted Christian mothers here, with strong 
and even insuperable objections to the existence of Ma- 
ternal Associations. I therefore come with this embar- 
rassment ; I come as an American, acquainted with Amer- 
ican institutions and American society, and unacquainted 
comparatively with English institutions and English so- 
ciety, and therefore I may not speak wisely ; but you will 
understand what I say to be spoken with that degree of 
light that I possess, and for that alone I can be responsi- 
ble. My impression is that mothers ought to associate ; 
under what circumstances, by what principles to be regu- 
lated, must be left to the wisdom of those that are in the 
particular locality, judging of local circumstances and of 
local habits ; but I know not why the great and glorious 
principle of combined strength and combined counsel, 
when two are stronger than one, should not be brought to 
bear upon the general duty of mothers. I can conceive 
of but one general objection j and that is, that mothers 
should feel that their duties are discharged by being mem- 
bers of or going to the Maternal Association, whereas 
that would be an utter perversion, for the design is to fit 
mothers for the duties of home by mutual counsel and 
mutual encouragement. 

My commission is to recommend to you this day the 
formation and the universal adoption (under whatever 
modifications you may find best) of Maternal Associa- 
tions. And as your patience will allow me, I will dwell 
upon the arguments, that are most prominent before my 
mind on the subject. 

1. The first consideration that I urge is the tendency 
of Maternal Associations to promote maternal education. 

There may be an appearance of the want of sufficient 
respect, there maybe an appearance of invidious compar- 
ison, when I say that mothers need to be educated. But 
I think that there is not this want of respect $ for I think 



124 SERMON V. 

I should say it even to my own mother, ' Are there not 
many things, that might have been rectified in my edu- 
cation, if you had had the light that a kind God is begin- 
ning to pour upon the great subject of maternal duty V — 
and I should expect, from that good sense and that piety 
which I know characterize her, to have her say, ' Yes, 
my son : every day I live I am discovering my faults, my 
own neglects, my own want of a sense of maternal re- 
sponsibility, my own want of a deep and solemn consider- 
ation of the importance of education ; willingly would I 
go back, with the light I now have, and rear my family 
again.' 

There are unquestionably two classes of mothers in 
society ; and therefore there is great propriety in the es- 
tablishment of two kinds (or at least two branches) of 
Maternal Associations. There are those, that are com- 
petent to be to each other mutual instructers ; and there 
are those, that from the want of advantages of instruction 
had better be subjected to the guidance of those, to whom 
God has given more light. Then I say, let there be the 
Mutual Instruction Maternal Association, and the Mater- 
nal Association in which one is instructed and the other 
a learner. And oh ! if there be an angel visit of mercy 
on this earth, it is for the enlightened Christian mother 
to go to the habitation of her poor and uninstructed sister, 
and teach her how to bear her burden, how to train her 
family. If God has given her light and given her love, 
let her go, as she has "freely received," and "freely give'' 1 
it to the needy. It is worth more than the money and 
the clothing and the bread, though the money and the 
clothing and the bread should come with it. 

I need not convince this assembly of the importance 
of the moral influence of a mother ; I may dwell upon it 
for a moment only to produce a deeper sense of that 
which we already know. It is unquestionable, that the 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 125 

hopes of human society and the hopes of the Church of 
God are to be found in the character, in the views and in 
the conduct of mothers. I will state one single fact ; 
though it is taking up the very lowest department of this 
subject, yet I will state one single fact on the civil bear- 
ings of Maternal Associations. I suppose, that, if you 
could trace the history of every criminal that stands at 
the bar of your courts of justice in this great metropolis, 
(where there is so much good and so much evil,) you 
would find that nearly every poor criminal there went 
through as regular an education, as every physician and 
lawyer in your land ; and I suppose, that you would find, 
that mothers had trained their children as regularly for 
the prison and the gibbet, as we have schools for training 
them for the important duties of life. When I pass 
through your streets, and see the places where the pol 
luting and fiery poison is sold, and see the mothers with 
the little infants at their breasts going into those nurseries 
of crime, those hot-beds of poverty and pollution, those 
gateways of death and hell, my heart bleeds within me. 
A mother, instead of the milk from her breast to nourish , 
and the " milk" of heavenly truth for the immortal mind 
of her child, pouring into its little system the fiery poison 
of hell! Bear with me; and if I thought there were a 
vender of the dreadful poison here, I could not but turn 
aside from the theme committed to me, to plead one mo- 
ment with him. It seems to me so cruel, for men to sell 
that which they know is to ruin body and soul, and to 
hand out the fiery glass to a mother to give it to her little 
child. Oh ! is there no way of inducing these wicked 
men to quit their dreadful employ % It is all in vain that 
we establish prisons, that we carry out the penitentiary 
system ; we shall only have to do it, so long as the moth- 
ers are training their children as they are. We must 
have some improvement in the domestic education of the 

12 



126 SERMON V. 



poor, if we want an improvement in our seats of crime 
and of poverty. And there is moral power enough in 
the Church to accomplish it. I know sometimes there 
are difficulties ; but I have seen these difficulties conquer- 
ed. I have seen the persevering visits of one Christian 
lady conquer the obdurate heart of a most hardened 
drunkard, and at last make her sit down a willing learner 
at the feet of her benefactor ; and I have seen the change 
in the order of the little cottage, the cleanliness of the 
children, the improved dress, the orderly habits, the reg- 
ular attendance at the sanctuary, the improved disposition 
and conduct of the little children, all coming from the 
fact that one Christian mother, that knew the duty of a 
mother and the importance of a mother, had gone to this 
poor woman, and waited on her "in the bowels of com- 
passion" that belong to Christ and to his people, until 
she had persuaded her to do her duty as a mother. 

I dwell on this one branch of the subject — the civil in- 
fluence alone — that I may on that rest your conviction of 
all the higher results, that are to come from the right 
guiding of a mother's mind, and the right guiding of 
human character between the ages of two years and 
twelve or fifteen, which is the peculiar sphere of the 
mother's influence. I wish to " magnify the office" of 
the mother j and I think the whole tendency of these Ma- 
ternal Associations is to bring it out, and hold it out to 
the view of mothers and of the world, in all its magni- 
tude and importance. Napoleon Buonaparte was a man 
of shrewd observation, and he once said to Madam Cam- 
pan — " The old systems of education are worth nothing ; 
what is wanted for the proper training of young persons 
in France 1" With keen discernment and great truth she 
replied in one word — " Mothers" This word struck the 
emperor; and the thought grew upon him. "Behold, 
then," said he, " an entire system of education ! you 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 127 

must make mothers, that know how to train their chil- 
dren." 

The influence of Rousseau, with all his infidelity, has 
been in some respects good on France. His object un- 
questionably in one of his works was to give citizens to 
the nation ; and he commenced with mothers. " The 
mother's milk," said he, " should be the milk of liberty." 
He resorted to the mothers, because he wanted to bring 
back mankind to truth, simplicity, and noble sentiments 
based on benevolence ; and all that was good, (for there 
was some good, and it is growing still,) all that was good 
in the terrible French revolution, it appears to me, can be 
traced to the influence of his writings, almost the only 
pure stream that did flow in those times. But he failed, 
in trusting too little to the importance of the character of 
the mother, and having no sense of the necessity of train- 
ing children for heaven. „ 

Man was born for the atmosphere of love ; and when 
we tear the little child from its mother, and send it to a 
stranger and to the stern teaching of a stranger, no one 
can tell how he feels his loss, and how his little heart 
sighs for his home, and for the smile of his mother, which 
was the sun of his home. Virtue is not so much taught 
to children as infused into them ; and infused into them 
at their first stage. Pestalozzi, the great Swiss instructer, 
has traced what may be (it appears to me that it probably 
is, but, whether it is or not, it suggests an important prin- 
ciple) — he has traced in this way the first discovery of 
the principles of moral government in the intercourse of 
the child and his mother : (by the first idea of moral gov- 
ernment I mean this — I have a will of my own, but there 
is a will exterior to mine and above mine, and that will 
has a right to limit mine.) He supposed a little child to 
begin to move his arm, and, as is natural to us, he finds 
pleasure in the freedom of the movement, he finds his 



128 SERMON V. 

delight in that motion to a certain length ; but he sup- 
poses him one day, in trying to make this movement, to 
meet the obstruction of a table — and perhaps it is the 
first idea he gets of external existence ; then he supposes 
the mother comes in and checks the child, and forbids 
him to do something he wishes to do ; the child begins 
to discover the difference between the involuntary table, 
the mere mass of matter that physically obstructed his 
movement, and the interposition of a will that interrupted 
him, and he supposes that there comes the first idea that 
there is a will out of us and above us ; and then con- 
science wakes up with the feeling, ' I ought to submit to 
that will.' And the great secret of family training is, to 
teach the child that he is to bow his will to the will that 
governs in the family ; and then the great secret of reli- 
gious training is, to teach him to bow his will to the will 
of God, and to say, " Thy will be done :" and, if he were 
brought to this on earth, he would come to stand in hea- 
ven among those shining ranks, whose entire feeling is, 
" Thy will be done." And how peculiarly is the mother 
fitted to exert this kind of influence on the mind of her 
child, because she can temper the sternness of that rigid 
will that does not bend to the child's desire with all the 
sweetness of love, and appeal to all the child's sense of 
dependence and of obligation to make it acceptable ! The 
eloquence of a mother's lips must first persuade the child 
to virtue. 

The first impressions, that should be made upon man's 
angelic mind, unquestionably are such as we trust will 
flourish in heaven ; and God has committed to mothers 
the teaching of these things to their children — to prefer 
honour to fortune, to succour distress, to love our fellows, 
to raise our hearts to God. I have been much struck 
with a remark made by a French writer. Of sixty-nine 
monarchs, who have worn the French crown, (he says,) 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 129 

only three have loved the people, and all those three 
were reared by their mothers without the intervention of 
pedagogues. A Bossuet educated the tyrant Louis XIV. ; 
his mother did not train him. St. Louis was trained by 
Blanche ; Louis XII. was trained by Maria of Cleves ; and 
Henri IV. was trained by Jane of Albret ; and these were 
really the fathers of their people." "Good professors 
can make good scholars" says this author ; " but good 
mothers alone can make good men." 

The incidental effect of our Maternal Associations is 
to elicit attention and talent to the great subject of ma- 
ternal duty, and to draw forth those great lessons of 
wisdom, that mothers need to learn to fit them to fulfil it. 

2. I will present a second consideration : the tenden- 
cy of mothers associating together as mothers, to confer 
on their duties and their difficulties, is to quicken the 
sense of their responsibility. 

"As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth a man the counten- 
ance of his friend." There is something in the social 
principle, when consecrated to the great work of personal 
holiness, on which the blessing of God seems peculiarly 
to rest. Hence there is so much said in the Bible of the 
value of social prayer; hence it is said, "Exhort one 
another daily." And I think there is an advantage in 
system in this. It is an advantage for mothers to meet 
periodically, to have regular seasons for exhorting each 
other in each other's duties, and increasing in each other's 
minds the sense of those duties. A periodical revival of 
this impression must, with the blessing of God, be very 
useful. 

3. I come now to a third consideration — their tenden- 
cy to increase family and maternal religion. 

On this subject I speak chiefly from the testimony of 
mothers. I have seen extracts from many letters from 
them, and I have the testimony of mothers in my own 

12* 



130 SERMON V. 

church, that they have found every meeting of the Mater- 
nal Association sent them home to their closets, humbled 
under a sense of their deficiencies, and casting themselves 
more fully on covenant grace to aid them in the discharge 
of maternal duty. 

One influence is found in this fact, that they have led 
to the collection of the best writings calculated to impress 
a mother's heart, and the bringing them together to read 
them ; and it is unquestionable as a general principle, that 
a thing read in a large company is altogether more im- 
pressive than that read alone. When the best writings 
of the best heads and the best hearts are brought before 
a collected assembly of mothers, I think the influence must 
be happy in elevating the standard of maternal piety, and 
having the mothers go back to the domestic circle to ele- 
vate the standard of maternal religion. I know the fact, 
that, when an individual mother has received a special 
blessing from God in answer to prayer, when an individ- 
ual mother has found her endeavours owned and blessed 
of God, and when she has gone to the meeting to tell it 
— each mother has said, " Then I must get nearer to God 
myself, and wait more faithfully upon him, and he will 
give me too the blessing which he has given to my 
sister." 

4. I urge a fourth consideration in recommendation 
of Maternal Associations ; they tend to facilitate the dis- 
charge of maternal duties. 

In the first place, they increase the information of 
mothers. And I will just run over a little catalogue of 
their duties, on which they need information. The mo- 
ther's art is the most difficult perhaps in this world. She 
has to train the body through the most delicate and ex- 
posed period of its existence ; she has to carry it through 
the period, when particular diseases invade it ; she has 
to attend to the physical development of the entire man, 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 131 

in beauty, in strength, in healthfulness. And then at the 
same time she has to rear the intellect and the heart — to 
judge of a thousand difficult questions of conscience, that 
are rising up almost every day in her sphere. It is a dif- 
ficult art, I say ; and, like every other art, we must have 
mothers more and more educated in it, to carry on human 
nature to its highest possible degree of attainment and 
perfection. If an apprentice must be sent for a certain 
term of years to learn the simple trade of making a watch 
or a shoe or a hat, what shall we say of her, that under- 
takes to mould the mind of immortal man, to prepare it 
to be steadfast amid the trials of life, and then to pass to 
the spheres of endless glory ] Well might angels wish 
to take the place of a mother, when they see how much is 
to be done in forming the future character of the man, in 
those years when he lies a helpless infant on his mother's 
lap. I speak from the testimony of missionary mothers ; 
and I delight to recommend it to those, that feel for their 
missionary sisters in this land. It is now becoming ex- 
tensively introduced in missionary stations. I was present 
at the Board of Commission of Foreign Missions, in 
America, when this question was agitated for many hours ; 
and it was exceedingly difficult to know what to do ; a 
missionary carries his children with him, or they are born 
in the country where he has gone, and they are cut off 
entirely from Christian privileges ; if they go outside the 
boundaries of their home, they are exposed to the most de- 
structive influences ; what was the missionary to do 1 
The question came back to us with the most heart-rend- 
ing anxieties of Christian mothers and Christian fathers, 
and it seemed as if we must call them back — as if it were 
too much to ask them, not only to sacrifice their earthly 
comforts, but to lay their children's souls (as it were) 
upon the altar ; for it seemed as though they could not 
guard them. But the manner, in which some of the mis- 



132 SERMON V. 

sionary ladies have written upon the subject, is beginning 
to cheer our hearts. We begin to think, that what they 
want is to make a more complete society of Christian 
mothers, and to train their children under its influence $ 
and if it is difficult, God will hear their prayers and give 
them peculiar help. Missionary mothers are rejoicing 
now in the formation of these Associations, which bring 
as it were the entire power of the mothers of the station 
to bear upon the duty of each individual mother in the 
Church. 

But I was speaking of the points, on which mothers 
need instruction, and on which these Maternal Associa- 
tions furnish it. They need to understand the subject of 
health of course; they need to understand the whole sub- 
ject of the physical development of man. For man's body 
is a wonderful organ. Just see what his hand alone can 
be taught to accomplish — what he can do as a painter, 
what he can do as a musician, what he can do as a writer 
— the thousand uses to which the human hand can be 
brought, how much power there lies hid in this machine, 
and how much skill is demanded properly to begin (and 
by and by to intrust to other hands) the full development 
of the physical power of man. Then she needs for his 
intellectual education another class of information ; and 
then for his religious education ; and then for the forma- 
tion of his moral habits, and the properly interesting him 
in his own proper department of education. No more 
difficult subject, than man in his infancy. Maternal As- 
sociations tend to facilitate the discharge of maternal 
duties by increasing light upon this difficult subject. 

And they do it by fortifying the determination of 
mothers. The great struggle in a mother's heart is be- 
tween her tenderness, avoiding inflicting (and not even 
bearing the sight of) the suffering of her child, and at 
the same time the faithful restraint and faithful reproof 






MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 133 

of her child j and perhaps there is not a mother, who will 
not find her determination more fortified, when, meeting 
her sisters, they have compared their own cases, and seen 
the limits to which duty carried others in refusing to in- 
flict pain, and the limits to which duty carried them in 
inflicting. 

They tend likewise to facilitate the discharge of ma- 
ternal duties by encouraging mothers. And here I wish 
to meet an objection, which seems to imply, that, if a lady 
joins a Maternal Association, she has peculiar need of 
being instructed. I look at the subject just in the other 
light j I would say, if the kind providence of God has 
given to any mother peculiar light on this subject, pecu- 
liar strength and peculiar faith, she is the very person to 
go to her sisters and give them the benefit of the light 
God has given her, and give them the benefit of the faith 
and confidence which inspire her own soul. Here is the 
very sphere for her benevolence and her talent. 

5. And I close my arguments in favour of Maternal 
Associations, by presenting the fact that they lead to 
concerted prayer for children. 

I well remember hearing it remarked, long before 
Maternal Associations were instituted, that, in a particular 
church in the State of New York, a number of fathers set 
apart an evening in the week to meet and pray for their 
children ; and the remark was made to me fifteen years 
ago, that every child of those families was converted to 
God ; there was not one left out. Oh ! it must be good 
for mothers to meet together and talk of the value of 
the souls of their children. It must be good for mothers 
to meet together, and talk of the guilt and danger of 
their children, and together talk over the precious pro- 
mises that encourage them, and together bow them before 
the mercy-seat, and plead, (those "two or three gathered 
together,") that God would convert their children's souls. 



134 SERMON V. 

I need not dwell upon such an argument. It is certainly- 
good for you to pray alone for your children ; and it is 
certainly good for you to get your sister to pray also 
for your children. It is good to have regular periodical 
prayer for your children, as well as to have constant 
family prayer. 

And thus I close my advocacy for Maternal Associ- 
ations. I have expounded to you the honest convictions 
and the warm feelings of my own heart on these important 
Associations ; but (as I remarked before) I am unable to 
judge particularly of the duty of others, because it is a 
recent institution, and may need to be greatly modified 
in its introduction to different states of society. 

Let me close with a word more particularly addressed 
to mothers. 

Mothers ! give your children every advantage — every 
advantage that truth can give, every advantage that a 
holy example can give, every advantage that much plead- 
ing the promises of God can give. You feel for the 
diseases of the body in your children ; you are speedy in 
sending for the physician, when the body is diseased ; 
oh ! feel for that immortal disease of sin, and send for 
the great Physician. And if he comes not at the first 
knock, knock again, for he says " it shall be opened ;" 
ask again, for he says that " you shall receive :" seek 
again, for he says that " you shall find." Oh ! seek sal- 
vation for your children. Seek that they may be con- 
verted early ; for if you want testimonies, there are 
enough of us that can give a painful testimony, that it is 
too late to be converted at twenty and at twenty-one. Not 
that we may not — not that we are not — for some of us 
reached even that period ; but what we mean is this — it 
is too late for many important purposes. It is so late 
that it gives, to the end of life, fearful struggles with the 
habits of the heart. It is too late, because there is so 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 135 

much left unlearned, that we should have learned if we 
had been pious in our early youth ; we should have gone 
so much deeper into the counsels of God, if we had come 
early to Christ, and, like Timothy, learned the Scriptures 
on our mother's lap, and followed the finger of a mother's 
love as it pointed to the Saviour. Oh ! pray that your 
sons may not grow up in sin ; pray that they may be con- 
verted in their earliest years ; labour that they may be 
converted in their earliest years. Pray that your daugh- 
ters, from the first development of their moral faculties, 
their moral being, may learn to love their God and 
Saviour, and be trained for usefulness here and glory 
hereafter. Your responsibility is great $ for the evils of 
society are to be rectified in the young. Mothers ! with 
you, who can arm them, who can train them, rests this 
responsibility ; and may God's blessed Spirit impress it 
on your hearts, and lead you to seek light and grace at 
the fountain from which they come. 

Mothers ! bring your little ones to Jesus. Bring them 
by faith ; and if Satan seems to stand and rebuke — if a 
wicked and unbelieving world, by its example and its in- 
fluence and its maxims, seems to rebuke — still bring your 
little ones to Christ, still press even to his feet, and never 
bear your mother's burdens alone, but roll them upon a 
breast that beats in sympathy with yours ; roll them upon 
the heart, and roll them upon the arms of the blessed Re- 
deemer. Bring them to Jesus as their Saviour. Bring 
them to Jesus as their Sovereign, and teach their wills to 
bow to his will. Bring them to Jesus as their pattern. 
It is said of a Grecian mother, that, when Alexander the 
Great was passing in the crowd, with his tall helmet and 
waving plumes, she raised up her child above her head, 
and said to him, " Look there ! that is Alexander the 
Great, and you must be another." We only point to the 
heathen mother, to teach you to take a high example j 



136 SERMON V. 

take the example of Jesus, and teach your child his 
blessed history, and say, ' There, my child ! be like Jesus ; 
tread in the footsteps of Jesus.' 

I see before me some dear little children. Next Sun- 
day afternoon I hope to address a whole sermon to chil- 
dren, and to tell them how much we ministers love them, 
how much we ministers long to see them Christians ; I 
hope then to say something to them, that the God of 
grace may bless to their little hearts ; but I am unwilling 
that they should go away this morning without a word. 
Dear little children, look at me, look at me as your 
friend ; look at me as a minister of Christ sent by the 
blessed Jesus to teach you. T want you to love Christ ; 
for I have seen dear little children that loved Christ ; I 
have seen dear little children, that wept because they had 
wicked hearts ; I have seen dear little children, that 
loved to speak of the blessed Saviour, who came and died 
for them. Are you such a child 1 Do you repent for sin 1 
Do you know how wicked a heart you have % Do you 
know how God is displeased even with the sins of chil- 
dren 1 do you know that you need the Holy Spirit to 
make you holy, and that you need the blood of Jesus to 
save you 1 Dear little children, have you read the story 
of the Saviour's sufferings 1 Do you remember how they 
whipped him, and how the blood ran down his body as 
they scourged him % Have you read how he went out 
into the garden, and wept and prayed and lay upon the 
ground in an agony 1 Have you never thought of it all 1 
It was because he loved your little souls, that he bore it. 
You know he never sent little children away from him ; 
he always took them in his arms and blessed them ; and 
you may be sure, that, when he prayed in that garden, he 
did not forget you. And when they nailed him to the 
cross, and put upon his head the cruel crown of thorns, 
and the blood ran down, dear children, he was dying for 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 137 

you. If he had not died, you must have gone to hell, but 
he died, that you might be taken into heaven at last. 
Will you love him % "Will you give him your hearts now ? 
I seem to see him going from seat to seat, and he stops 
at the little children ; many great men would pass you 
by, but Jesus Christ will not. He seems to stand at the 
door of little children's hearts, and to say, "Behold, I 
stand at the door and knock ; if any" little children 
" open the door, I will come in" to be their Saviour. 
Will you open your hearts to him, dear little children 1 
Will you say, ' Come, blessed Saviour ! and I will be thine 
obedient child ; I will love thee, I will serve thee, and 
then, when I die and my body is laid in the cold grave, I 
hope my soul will rise with holy angels to love and praise 
and pray !' 






13 



INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 139 



SERMON VI. 



CHILDREN URGED TO HEARKEN TO INSTRUCTION, AND TO FEAR 
THE LORD. 



" Come, ye children, hearken unto me ; I will teach you the 
fear of the Lord." — Psalm xxxiv. 11. 

You know, when a minister preaches, he divides his 
sermon into different parts ; sometimes we call them 
heads of the sermon ; and there are some that understand 
it so well, that they have their pencil and paper and take 
down each one of the heads. Now I want you to recol- 
lect them, whether you write them down or not ; because 
your teacher or your parents will ask you what the heads 
of the sermon were. I want every child to understand 
now, what the heads of the sermon mean ; 'they are the 
different points about which the minister makes his re- 
marks. 

Now I am going to give you two general heads in this 
sermon, and then, under each one of these general heads, 
several smaller particular heads. 

I. I am going to tell you, in the first place, several rea- 
sons why children should pay great attention to sermons. 
" Come, ye children, hearken unto me." 

I shall give you four reasons why every child ought 
to listen very attentively to the preacher ; now, under- 
stand that you must recollect these heads — these four 
reasons that I give. 

1. The first is this : if children do not pay great at- 
tention to the sermon, they cannot learn. Children come 



HO SERMON VI. 

to church to learn, just as they go to Sabbath school to 
learn ; but you cannot learn what the minister teaches 
you, if you do not attend to it. If there are two children 
in a class at school, that are going to study a lesson in 
geography — and if one of them, all the time that he 
ought to be studying, is looking about, is talking to some 
other child, is reading some other book, or' is thinking 
about something else besides the lesson in geography, 
which they have to learn — and if the other child attends 
to the geography, reads the lesson over, thinks of it, or, 
when the teacher is making any explanation, listens to 
every thing which the teacher says — you know which of 
those children will be prepared to recite the lesson in 
geography when the time comes. Just so in a sermon : 
that child that fixes his or her eye upon the minister, that 
child that attends to the minister, is the child that will 
learn the precious truths the minister teaches ; but that 
child that is looking about, that is talking about any thing, 
or that is thinking about something else, cannot learn 
any thing that is taught in the pulpit. I have been quite 
accustomed to preach and to talk a great deal to the chil- 
dren in my church, and I have some very dear children 
there that I love a great deal ; and I love them because 
they have paid so much attention to what I have preached 
to them from the pulpit, and what I have said to them in 
the meetings where I have addressed them. There was 
one little girl I will tell you about, to show you what kind 
of hearers we want among children. I had noticed her 
as she sat always in her father's seat in the church, re- 
markably fixing her eyes on me as soon as I rose up in 
the pulpit to begin the exercises ; but I did not know so 
much about her, till one day, when I was sick and con- 
fined to my chamber, her father called to see me, and 
began to talk about his dear little Mary, that was about 
nine or ten years of age, Said he, " Have you ever no- 



INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 141 

ticed how my little girl sits in church 1" I said I had not 
particularly noticed any thing but this, that I used to love 
to turn to that side of the church, because, if any one is 
preaching, he loves to see every person's eye on him, 
and, whenever I looked, this little girl's bright eyes were 
always fixed on me. But her father told me more about 
her. He said, that from the time I rose in the pulpit, she 
never turned her head one moment away from me, except 
sometimes when I said any thing that touched her heart 
very much, she would turn round to her mother, and say, 
"Is not that sweet 1" and that was the only time she 
would turn away from the preacher. But here was what 
struck me with great force about this little girl, one so 
young : it was the custom of this father, every Sabbath 
afternoon, after the second service, to go home and get 
all his children around him, and begin to talk over the 
sermon of the morning, and then the sermon of the after- 
noon j they found the text, and each one read it, and 
then the father would begin to tell what he recollected of 
the sermon, and then the mother repeated what she re- 
collected and that he had omitted ; and the father assured 
me, that sometimes they forgot one of the heads of the 
sermon, one of the divisions, and they would turn to little 
Mary, and she would recollect it. I was quite surprised ; 
but I have learnt more about little children since then, 
and I find they can be very profitable hearers of sermons ; 
and ever since that time it has encouraged me a great 
deal, even when I am preaching to grown people, to talk 
especially to children, because I find that dear little chil- 
dren can understand me : and that is all a minister wants, 
for the people to understand him, and think about what 
he says. 

2. Now, children, I have given you one reason why 
you should pay attention to sermons, and that is, that, if 
you do not, you cannot learn ; and the second reason is, 

13* 



142 SERMON VI. 

that you cannot be made good but by learning. You will 
find a text written in the New Testament, that " faith 
cometh by hearing;" that is, it is when people hear the 
Bible read, and hear the sermon which explains the Bible, 
that they get faith in God, that they get to believe his 
truth, and then they feel its power upon their hearts. Re- 
collect, dear children, that it is not hearing, words that 
will make you good ; I have known a little child, that 
would sit and look right at a person that was telling a 
story, and, if you were to go immediately afterwards and 
ask him what he had heard, he could tell you almost no- 
thing about it ; and why 1 because, though his eyes were 
fixed upon the person that was speaking, his thoughts 
were going upon some other subject. And 1 am afraid 
now, that there are a great many children in this church, 
and even some of those that are looking right at me, that 
do not hear me rightly. I am afraid they do not hear me 
talking or know what I am saying. Who is that child, 
which is that child, that is not understanding what I am 
saying 1 I want that child to think and know. It will 
do him no good to come to church, it will do him no good 
to go to Sabbath school or any other school, if his mind 
is inattentive to what is said. You must understand the 
meaning of what is said ; and if there is any thing, the 
meaning of which you do not understand, you ought then 
to try and recollect as much about it as you can, and ask 
your parents, or ask your teacher afterwards to explain it 
to you. And more than that, dear children ; when you 
hear sermons, you must listen just as if it was God him- 
self that was speaking, because he sends us. We come 
from God to you ; we have a message from God to you. 
How very kind of the great God, that he will stoop from 
heaven and send a message to little children ! But he 
does it ; and where is that little child that dare be care- 
less while we are delivering God's message] Children ! 



INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 143 

you ought to listen to sermons as for your life ; you 
ought to believe all that is said, as coming from God, and 
your hearts ought to feel it, and then you ought to go 
away from the church to obey it. 

3. Now I have given you two reasons why you should 
attend to sermons — in order that you may learn, and in 
order that you may be good ; and the third reason is this — 
because ministers love you. Dear children, we love you ; 
we love you very much. We love you, because you have 
immortal souls, that will live when your bodies are dead, 
and because you are going to the judgment seat of Christ, 
and going to eternity, to heaven or to hell ; and it is that 
you may not go to hell, it is that you may not live in sin 
against God, it is that you may not keep those wicked 
hearts that offend God, it is that you may come to that 
blessed Saviour, who, when on earth, laid his hands on 
children and blessed them — it is that you may believe the 
gospel with your whole hearts, and die in peace and love 
and in fellowship w T ith Christ, that we come to preach to 
you. We have prayed for you, dear children ; we have 
felt for you ; we feel for you now ; we love you ; and if 
we love you, will you not love usl and if you love us, 
will you not listen to us 1 It is a great deal easier to 
preach to grown-up people, than it is to little children — 
so many of you are restless and making a noise, and it is 
so much harder to explain things to you than to grown- 
up people ; and yet we are willing to do it. Oh ! it is 
very ungrateful in a little child, not to pay great attention 
to what we say when we come here and try to teach you. 
And an ungrateful child never grows up to be a good man 
or woman. An ungrateful heart is one of the things of 
which God most complains. Every little child ought to 
be very grateful to his Sabbath school teacher — teachers 
that come so regularly, and that sacrifice so many com- 
forts for you ; you ought to be very grateful to them, to 



144 SERMON VI. 

love them, and to pay them great attention. And so it is 
with the minister, that loves you, and feels for your souls, 
and prays to God on your behalf, and comes to instruct 
you, and tries to lead you to the Lamb of God, who has 
taken away your sins j you ought to love them, and you 
ought to listen to them. 

4. And now I will give you a fourth reason why you 
should listsn to the preacher, listen with your mind, and 
attend with your mind as well as with your ear and eye ; 
it is because God himself speaks. I have already said, 
that God speaks through his ministers ; but I want you 
now to treat it as a distinct reason. If the great" God 
should come down here, as he did upon the top of Mount 
Sinai, in a cloud, and with lightnings and thunder and the 
sound of a trumpet — if this house should tremble, and the 
ceiling should open, and the glory of the eternal King 
should appear, and the voice of God should sound out — 
all the children would listen. Well, children, it is just 
as really that eternal God whom the angels adore, that is 
now speaking. He makes use of us ; but he will bring 
you into judgment at the last day for every sermon you 
have heard ,* and if you do not listen to them, if you reject 
them, then God will bring you into judgment for neglect- 
ing him and rejecting his message. 

Now, children, do you all understand this first head, 
that children ought to pay great attention to the preach- 
er % I have given you four reasons for it. The first is, 
that if you do not pay attention, you cannot learn ; and 
where is that child, that is willing to be stupid and igno- 
rant — especially not to learn God's great and precious 
truth % The second is, that, if you do not pay great at- 
tention, with your eye, with your ear, with your hearts, 
you cannot be made good. The third is, because minis- 
ters love you. And the fourth is, because God himself 
speaks to you by us. That you will see, when you come 



INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 145 

to read the rest of the verse ; and that is the next part of 
our subject. 

" Come, ye children, hearken unto me." Well, what 
shall I teach you, when you listen] I suppose now, the 
greater part of these dear children will listen to me, for 
the rest of my sermon ; I suppose they have made up 
their minds to listen very attentively and very solemnly ; 
and if so, try to feel what I say, and pray that the Holy 
Spirit of God may help you to remember it and obey it. 

II. " Come, ye children, hearken unto me ; I will 

TEACH YOU THE FEAR OF THE LORD." I Want to teach 

you, dear children, to fear God. 

Why ought you to fear God % I am going to give you 
three reasons for that. 

1. The first reason why we ought to fear God is, be- 
cause he is so great. " Come, ye children, hearken unto 
me ;" I am now your minister, and I am your dear friend: 
come, listen to me, and I will teach you to fear the great 
God. When I was a little boy this thought used often 
to come into my mind — How is it possible that God never 
had a beginning 1 Many and many a time I tried to carry 
my thoughts back before the world was, before the angels 
were — backward, backward into eternity — and thought, 
How is it possible that God never had a beginning 1 — and 
then to carry my mind onward and onward, after we are 
dead, and after those that shall come next are dead, the 
next generation dead, the world burnt up, the judgment 
day passed, all of us in eternity, onward and onward and 
onward for ever — and yet God will never cease to be. Oh ! 
what a great and awful Being is God ! He existed from 
eternity, he exists to eternity; he exists in himself; no 
other being keeps him in existence ; he is God. He fills 
all immensity, all worlds, all the universe ; he sustains 
the planets, for he made them ; he made the sun, he made 
the moon, he made the distant worlds, perhaps millions 



146 SERMON VI. 

and millions of them ; he made this world, he keeps it in 
being \ he made the beasts and the trees, the birds, and 
the fishes of the sea, all men and all children, and holds 
them in his hand. What a great God is he, that takes 
care of all this congregation! what a mighty God ! Well, 
this God, so great in power, that made the heavens and 
the earth, that built the everlasting mountains, and made 
the sea — this God, whom the angels fear — this great God, 
that cast down the rebel angels into hell, sent a deluge 
upon this wicked world and drowned all its inhabitants — 
this great God, that sent the fire of his wrath upon Sodom 
and Gomorrah, and burnt them up, because of their sins, — 
this great God, that cast Pharaoh and all the Egyptian 
army into the Red Sea — this great God, that thunders in 
the heavens, and can make the earth quake from pole to 
pole — this great God, children! you ought to "fear." He 
is able to lift you up, and he is able to cast you down. 
He is able to cast all the wicked into hell, and he is able 
there " to destroy both soul and body for ever." Would 
you be afraid of a lion in your path, that could destroy 
you 1 God made the ferocious lion ; and if God is "angry 
with the wicked," his anger is infinitely more terrible than 
the anger of any creature that he has made. Dear chil- 
dren, if we fear the creatures that God has made, how 
much more ought we to be afraid of the anger of the 
great and powerful God ! " Come, ye children, hearken 
unto me ; I will teach you the fear of the Lord." You 
ought to fear the power and the anger of the great God. 
2. There is another reason why you should fear him, 
and this is the second I am about to mention ; it is because 
God is so holy. God is holy, dear children ; and he knows 
your hearts, he knows your thoughts, he knows all your 
words, and he hates every sin. He hates your sins very 
much, he requires you to "be holy, as he is holy." 
This holy God will punish iniquity. There is a day 



INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 147 

coming, when he will bring us all up at his judgment- 
seat 5 and there is not a child that I am speakin y to this 
afternoon, that will not have to stand at the judgment- 
seat of the great God. Children ! think of this holy- 
God, that will bring you into judgment ; think of your 
wicked hearts, and your wicked lives, and all your wick- 
ed words, that God will bring out at that great and terrible 
day. You will have to stand there ; none of us can es- 
cape j death and the grave will not hold us, for, when the 
archangel's trumpet shall blow, we shall all come out of 
our graves and go and stand before God. We, then, that 
have sinned against him, we that have provoked him to 
wrath, ought to fear his anger. Hence it is said, that all 
that are round about him shall " fear before him." You 
must approach him with reverence, with repentance, and 
with sincerity. And then understand, dear children, (as 
I preached this morning, and I repeat it to those who 
were not here,) that the only way to come to a holy God 
is to come through his dear Son. You must come 
through Jesus Christ. Your sins are great, and call for 
the anger of God, and, unless you approach him through 
his dear Son, Jesus Christ, you must perish. I have 
known some dear little children, (I have known many of 
them, for I have seen a great many children that I think 
loved God,) and I have seen them greatly troubled about 
their sins ; I have seen them so troubled, that for days, 
and sometimes for weeks, they could hardly sleep in 
quiet, for every night when they were going to bed the 
thought came to them, 'Oh! if I should die to-night! 
Oh! if God should take me away in my sins !' I used to 
be afraid of dying, when 1 was a boy ; and I wonder now 
that God did not cut me off then, so wicked a boy as I 
was ; and many of you, dear children, ought to fear too, 
for you have been very wicked. I remember, once I was 
playing with some other little boys by the side of a great 



148 SERMON VI. 

river, and I carelessly ran over the edge of the bank and 
fell into the river • but it was low tide ; if it had 
been high tide, I should certainly have been drowned,* 
suppose I had, I should have gone to hell, for 1 was a 
wicked boy, as I fear many of you are. Oh ! what mercy 
that God did not let me drown then, and did not let me 
die in my sins! And so it is with you ; and you ought 
to be afraid of this holy God ; you ought to be afraid to 
sleep while your sins are unpardoned and your hearts are 
unconverted, because God is so holy that he cannot bear 
to look upon sin, even in the heart and in the life of a 
child. And how are you ever going to dwell in the holy 
heaven of God, and with his holy angels, dear children, 
unless your hearts become holy 1 You must become holy, 
the Spirit of Christ must make you holy, or you cannot 
dwell with God. Therefore you ought to be very much 
afraid, lest God should give you up to your wicked heart, 
and lest God should take away his Holy Spirit from you, 
and then you would never become holy, and never dwell 
in his presence. 

3. Now I am going to mention a third reason, besides 
God's being so great and so holy ; and it is, because God 
is able to do what he will with you, both in this life and 
the next. All the children that hear me, if they live, will 
grow up to be men and women. Children ! who can take 
care of you in this life 1 Your fathers and mothers, 
(such of you as God has spared them to,) — your fathers 
and mothers can do much for you; your friends can do 
much for you ; but there is a great deal that they cannot 
do for you. They cannot make you happy, they cannot 
make other people respect you, they cannot make you suc- 
ceed in any thing you undertake in this world • all true 
happiness must come from God, and the respect of men 
must come because God gives it to us, and all success in 
life must come from God ; all real good must come from 



INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 149 

God. Now, dear children, God can do what he pleases 
with you. He can let you grow up wicked ; he can leave 
you to temptation, leave you to bad company, leave you 
to disgrace. I have known the children of pious parents 
grow up so wicked, that the parents have had to turn 
them from their doors ; I have known them fall into the 
temptations of the devil and into the company of wicked 
boys, and be led on from one sin to another, till they be- 
came so wicked and so hardened, that their parents could 
not bear them under their roof. It is true, as far as we 
are able to trace, that the greater part of the children 
that are trained up in Sabbath schools, grow up respect- 
able in this life, though T am afraid very many of them 
go down to hell, because they will not believe on Christ 
in their hearts. But, dear children, God can leave you 
to temptation, to bad company, to disgrace and sorrow ; 
he can take away your parents, he can take away your 
friends, he can give you up to a hard heart, and then, after 
a life of wickedness, he can leave you to die in despair. 
I have seen persons die in despair ; and I pray to God, that 
none of you, dear children, may live in wickedness and 
at last die in despair and without hope in God. Chil- 
dren ! be afraid of God, because he can bring sorrow, 
wo, penury, in this life, despair in your dying hours, and 
everlasting destruction in the life to come. 

Children ! hearken unto me ; you must be afraid of 
displeasing God, you must have great reverence for God. 
When you read the Bible, you must fear God, because 
he is a great and a holy God ; when you go into your 
little room apart to pray, you must fear God j when you 
go to the Sabbath school you must fear God ; when you 
come into the sanctuary, where God is worshipped, you 
must fear God — you must neither talk and laugh with 
one another, nor let light and trifling thoughts come into 
your minds, but you must feel that the place is holy, 

14 



150 seplMon vi. 

Come, children ! learn to fear God. I was delighted this 
afternoon, to hear so many children's voices joining in 
the solemn songs of Zion : that is sweet, hut Oh ! how 
much sweeter the thought would be, if I could believe 
that every child here feared God, that every child here 
was humbled in the presence of God, sorrowful for hav- 
ing sinned against him, and that every child here desired, 
more than any thing else, that God would take away his 
anger and remove his displeasure from them ! Children, 
fear God, so as to repent of sin ; fear God, so as to obey 
him ; fear God, so that when you go in secret, you will 
not dare to sin. Children, when they get alone, are not 
afraid to sin, because they are not afraid of God; they 
are afraid to sin before their parents, they are afraid to 
say a wicked word before their father, because he will 
chastise them, but, when they get alone, they are not 
afraid of doing it. " Thou God seest me," every child 
should say — " Thou God seest me" in the darkness, as 
well as in the light ; " Thou God seest me" when 1 am 
alone, as well as when I am with my parents. When you 
get with wicked children, you should fear him ; when you 
hear them swear, when they hand you wicked indecent 
books or pictures, fear God, my children. The boy that 
has the fear of God, may grow up to live to God's glory 
in this world, and to dwell with him in his glory in the 
next. The boy that has not the fear of God, I have no 
hope of him ; if he should do well in this life (as men 
say) he would perish for ever in the next. 

Now I am about to finish the sermon ; but I want first 
to point you, for one or two minutes, to the cases of three 
or four individuals, that feared God in their youth. 

You recollect little Samuel. You have read his his- 
tory. Little Samuel was in the temple night and day, 
always waiting upon God, always fearing and serving 
God. You see, Samuel got to be one of the greatest 



INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 151 



prophets in Israel ; he anointed Saul, and afterwards 
David, to be king of Israel. 

You recollect the case of Joseph. When Potiphar's 
wife tempted him to sin, Joseph feared God, and refused 
to sin ; and God honoured him, and saved him, and set 
him on high, and made him a blessing to his family and to 
the whole land of Egypt. 

But I want to tell you particularly of a person, of whom 
you may not have heard so much ; all the children in 
America have heard much of him, because he lived there, 
and he was a very great and good man. I mean George 
Washington — I think, one of the greatest men in some 
respects that has lived in modern days ; and I admire 
him, because, when he was a little boy, I see the reason 
why he was sure to become a great man. I will tell you 
two things about George Washington, when he was a lit- 
tle boy, that were sure security that he would become 
what he was. George Washington would rather die than 
tell a lie, he would rather suffer any thing than violate the 
truth ; and one of the dreadful crimes of children is, that 
they lie, that they deceive, and God knows it and writes 
every lie and every deception in his book. This boy 
feared to lie ; and I will give you two instances of it. 

His father had imported from Europe a beautiful cherry- 
tree, and had planted it in his garden, and watched it 
every day with great interest to see it grow. He had 
bought for his son George a hatchet, that he might play 
with. One day George was in the garden with his little 
hatchet, and without much thought of what he was doing, 
he came to this beautiful tree, and cut the bark almost 
round in several places — for you know boys are fond of 
using edged tools in that way. His father, taking his 
walk in the garden, found the tree cut in this way, and 
he saw it must die. He was very much grieved, and he 
saw at once who must have done it ; but he said nothing, 



152 SERMON VI. 

till he met George ; he did not send for him, but waited 
till he met him. And the first time he met him, he said, 
"George, some one has destroyed my favourite tree; do 
you know who has done it 1" The little hoy, instead of 
blushing and turning away, instead of making excuses, 
instead of telling a falsehood, looked right up in his 
father's face, and said, " My father, I have done it." Tears 
instantly rolled down his father's cheek ; he laid his right 
hand upon his boy's head ; said he, " George, I would 
rather lose every tree in my garden, than you should tell 
a lie ; I like to see the manliness of your heart, that you 
should at once confess, " I have done it." 

His mother had a little dun colt, a foal that had never 
been broken in. One morning before breakfast several of 
George's companions came to see him, and they happened 
to go out together into the meadow where the colt was. 
George proposed that one of them should get upon the 
colt, and ride ; but none of them would venture. He was 
a fearless boy himself, and he got a bridle, (or rather a bit 
of rope,) fastened it to the horse's neck, and then mount- 
ed it. But the colt was so restless, and sprang about so 
much, that at last it dashed itself to the earth, burst a blood 
vessel, and died almost in a moment. The boys all went 
to breakfast, and Mrs. Washington endeavoured to amuse 
them and make them happy ; but she saw they were not 
happy ; she saw there was something to make them sad. 
At last said she, " Have you seen my favourite colt 1" 
All the boys blushed in confusion and distress. Said she — 
" What is the matter 1 has any thing happened to my 
coltl" Her little son George looked right in her face ; 
said he, "Mother, I have killed your colt % n His mother 
was grieved of course ; but her remarks to him were very 
much like those, that his father made. 

Now I will tell you one other thing about him, to show 
in what way I think it was evident that he would become 



INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 153 

a great man. He was about to go to sea as a midship- 
man ; every thing was arranged, the vessel lay out oppo- 
site his father's house, the little boat had come on shore 
to take him off, and his whole heart was bent on going. 
After his trunk had been carried down to the boat, he 
went to bid his mother farewell, and he saw the tear 
bursting from her eye. However she said nothing to 
him ; but he saw that his mother would be so distressed 
if he went, and perhaps never be happy again. He just 
turned round to the servant, and said, " Go and tell them 
to fetch my trunk back ; I will not go away, to break my 
mother's heart." His mother was struck with his deci- 
sion, and she said to him, " George, God has promised to 
bless the children that honour their parents, and I believe 
he will bless yow." And he did. 

Children ! I exhort you, for the sake of this life, to 
fear God. I exhort you so to fear him, that you will not 
live under his anger, but go to his blessed Son, and 
seek pardon through him. And then if you and I meet 
in heaven, if you join the ranks of angels and of saints on 
high, we shall dwell in love, and " fear" God together. 

May God add his blessing ! May you all become dear 
holy children ; and when you die, may you be admitted 
to the world of glory, through his grace in Christ Jesus ! 



14* 



PRACTICAL LOVE TO CHRIST. 155 



SERMON VII. 



PRACTICAL LOVE TO CHRIST. 



" And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I 
say unto you. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of 
the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, De- 
part from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared 
for the devil and his angels : For I was an hungered, 
and ye gave me no meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me 
no drink : I was a stranger, and ye took me not in : 
naked, and ye clothed me not : sick, and in prison, and 
ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, 
saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, 
or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did 
not minister unto thee 1 Then shall he answer them, 
saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not 
to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." — Matt, 
xxiv. 40 — 45. 

Many centuries ago, a prince of mighty empire de- 
termined to travel in disguise into a strange land, for the 
purpose of accomplishing certain very benevolent objects. 
As he was one day journeying on foot through a rough and 
weary country, in the western part of Asia, he came to a 
celebrated watering-place. Being greatly fatigued, he 
sat down upon the well-curb, and waited for some one to 
come with a vessel and cord, that he might relieve him- 
self from thirst. He had not long sat there before a wo- 
man from a neighbouring city came to the well. He 



158 SERMON VII. 

asked her to allow him to drink from her pitcher. She 
refused, because his dialect and dress bespoke him a 
foreigner. Hearer ! suppose you had been there, and 
had suspected that it was a prince, would you not gladly 
have supplied him 1 But what would you have done, if 
you had ascertained that it was the Son of God, the King 
of Heaven 1 Oh, I would have cried out as that wo- 
man did — Lord, Lord, / must turn suppliant ; I will, 
indeed, give thee this poor earthen pitcher, and supply 
thee with the water of Jacob's well ; but ! do thou give 
me the Water of Life. Believe me, my hearers, you 
have the opportunity ; he is now travelling in disguise 
through our land. Where is he 1 and how shall we 
know him % He is wherever human nature is suffering 
the ills of life ; wherever the body is in sickness or pain ; 
wherever the mind is in darkness or misery. Yes, it is 
with poor human nature he has identified himself — no 
matter how poor, how abject, how despised — wherever 
human flesh is wrapped around a human soul — the more 
it suffers, the deeper it is fallen, the more tender is the 
Saviour's sympathy, the more burning is his shame, and 
he that lifts up that degraded human being, takes the blush 
from Jesus' cheek ; he that gives a cup of cold water to a 
thirsty man, because he regards the Saviour's interest in 
that man, quenches the thirst, and cheers the heart, of the 
Son of God. Do you ask the proof of this bold and 
strange position X It is found in all the solemn descrip- 
tion of the judgment which filled this discourse of Christ 
himself. Do you shrink from that low and filthy apart- 
ment, from that emaciated and disgusting frame, because 
your senses are trained to refinement % do you pass by 
on the other side from the bed of contagion 1 So Jesus 
says, " I was sick, and ye did not visit me." You are 
mistaken, friends ; that is a bed of state, and Heaven's 
prince lies there disguised by all that filth and poverty — 



PRACTICAL LOVE TO CHRIST. 157 

all his ministering spirits are hovering around that spot. 
It is a glorious place, in which a poor sinner may minister 
to his Sovereign. Do you say we have imagined an ex- 
treme case. Oh, no, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
the least, ye have done it unto me." Yes ; but there is 
another case of debasement, which surely contradicts your 
assertion. What is it 1 It is that of the man who has 
outraged all the ties of society, trampled its laws under 
his feet, made himself the enemy of his race, and cast 
himself beyond the pale of sympathy ; and he now lies 
enchained and endungeoned for his crimes. Surely Christ 
has no fellowship with him. Stop, my hearers, read the 
record again ; " I was in prison, and ye did not come 
unto me." When, Lord, and where 1 There, in that 
lowest and least of Adam's apostate children. But we 
have not finished the application of the principle — there 
is a still further debasement of humanity. It is a woman, 
who, having sacrificed her modesty, purity, refinement and 
tenderness, has become an outcast from society. Does 
the Son of God regard her thus too 1 Go ask the Phari- 
sees, who saw him associating with the worst of men and 
women, as their Teacher and Saviour, and even receiving, 
with the most condescending kindness, Mary's expres- 
sions of gratitude. They can testify that he loved the 
worst, and the vilest, with the same tender affection which 
he felt towards the more upright and respectable. He 
associated with them, taught them, encouraged their 
reformation, prayed, and died for them, as for others. 
Are your doubts removed now ; and can you now take 
up this proposition as truth 1 Then I answer a very na- 
tural inquiry, Why is it so 1 

1. Because Christ's compassion for our race is so strong 
and impartial. It is so strong, therefore, no man can sink 
below it, so long as Justice permits Mercy to be exer- 
cised in his behalf. It is impartial, and therefore it re- 



158 SERMON VII. 

gards the Christian family as a great race of apostates. 
The grand distinction that constitutes us sinners is so 
much greater than that which can possibly separate one 
sinner from another — except grace work in us a differ- 
ence — that to Christ's compassion it is nothing. He loves 
human nature, as such, and as fallen, not as holy^ nor 
lovely. And it is of the nature of sympathy to identify 
its possessor with its object — thus it is with the mother ; 
her full born is as the apple of her eye. Thus Christ feels 
towards all — for he died for all as dead. 

2. There is another reason. It is a better test of our 
compassion and benevolence than if we helped Christ in 
person. He desires that one principle of action in us 
shall be good will to man. Therefore, although he con- 
siders all our good will and kindness to men as shown to 
himself, yet he prefers that we shall consider it in part as 
done to them,, and that we shall sympathize with him in 
this pure love of human nature, which pursues it to the 
extremities of its folly, and the abysses of its degrada- 
tion. 

3. There is a third reason. It is thus a strong test of 
our love to him personally. He is now in disguise. If 
you can join a party only when it is triumphant, you be- 
tray a want of real and strong attachment to their princi- 
ples — if you can acknowledge Christ only when he ap- 
pears in external splendour, that he will despise. The 
test now applied to the whole human family is this :— Will 
you make common cause with Christ when his cause is 
despised and persecuted — will you labour, weep, pray, 
suffer, expend, or die for human nature in its lowest state, 
partly for its sake, and chiefly for yours 1 

Another point is suggested by the subject and object 
of our meeting : I am addressing a community, to whom 
applications are made continually for the gift of their 
property for the benefit of other people. Now, is this 



PRACTICAL LOVE TO CHRIST. 159 

right 1 Some say, No. I must answer, it is right ; it is 
blessed in those who apply ; it is merciful in God to afford 
us the opportunities of charity. It is blessed to us in the 
fulfilment of God's precious promises to the liberal soul. 
But let us take a closer view of this point. Why are we 
not called upon to give all that we are to give, and then 
rest for a time, and prepare ourselves for another onset 
upon our sympathies and purses 1 I tell you, my breth- 
ren of this flourishing commercial city, many reasons 
why it is not best. And the first is — 

1. Your prosperity would be your ruin. It would en- 
crust your hearts over with selfishness. It would tend to 
degrade your Christian character. The very fact that 
such a question is entertained betrays a state of mind full 
of danger to a Christian. You certainly take a very low 
view of God's design in giving you property, if you love 
money for its own sake : if you love it for the sake of 
promoting your own gratifications ; — if you count not 
yourself a steward of God's property, and accountable to 
him for it all — then the more you have the worse. Let me 
suggest another consideration. 

2. God is lifting this world from sin and degradation 
by human instruments. In the work he himself has spared 
no expense, not even his own Son ; and we are most gra- 
ciously permitted to participate in it. That is the proper 
view to take of these calls for money perpetually return- 
ing. If it is not to promote some branch of the great 
enterprise which lies on the heart of infinite love, and 
taxes the resources of Heaven's King — then do not con- 
tribute. Benevolence is the law of his empire, but what 
is benevolence 1 — to grow weary of doing good — to wish 
to have all the good in one form — to do it one time, 
and then live in selfishness! Away with such views, my 
brethren. If they have occupied your minds; banish 
them. Let your benevolence to man be like the morn- 



160 SERMON VII. 

ing visits of the sun. It never exclaims, What ! has this 
begging earth returned, with its swarms of begging crea- 
tures, taxing my treasures of light and warmth 1 Give, 
my brethren, like the sun — give like him who made the 
sun, and appointed it the emblem of his perpetual and 
munificent goodness. This is, probably, the wealthiest 
city in the world. Its merchants are princes. They 
ought to be first in the princely work of benevolence. 
There is magnificence of expenditure, there ought to be 
munificence in charity. What moral sublimity would 
pertain to London, if we could look upon its mighty com- 
merce, and believe that it is all consecrated to the pro- 
motion of Christ's kingdom, and the removal of human 
misery! Your palaces would be more splendid, if they 
did not cast their daily shadows on so many wretched, 
most wretched creatures. It is impossible for a mind, 
properly humanized, to look at the marks of grandeur 
and luxury here accumulated, without the recollection of 
the contracted condition of thousands of your citizens. 
It should be the earnest prayer of every lover of the hu- 
man species, that London may speedily become the model 
for the world's beneficence, the great instructer of man- 
kind in the true and most proper uses of money. I must 
now explain, more specifically, the objects, plans, and 
claims of the London Female Mission. 

Woman is the object of its holy enterprise ; her con- 
dition has excited our compassion, and her welfare is the 
goal of our pursuits ; and we now solicit your kind atten- 
tion to those views of her state which have enlisted our 
hearts in this enterprise of mercy. Christianity has ele- 
vated her, and greatly blessed her. But we indulge a 
delusion in selecting some instances of female excellence, 
which are merely the demonstration of its benign power, 
while we overlook the myriads who are yet without the 
sphere of its direct influence ', it is unfortunate that we 



PRACTICAL LOVE TO CHEIST. 161 

so often rest with complacency in contemplating what 
Christianity has done, and may do — when these results 
are but the first fruits of a harvest — instead of investi- 
gating the melancholy condition of those whose future 
elevation may yet add gloriously to its triumphs. We 
exhort, then, our fellow Christians to behold the lovely 
and elevated character of the mothers and daughters in 
Israel — to remember the contrast between them and their 
Pagan ancestry is the effect of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
We exhort them to turn from these hundreds to behold 
the thousands who are untaught, unrefined, and unsancti- 
fied. That ignorance can give place to knowledge — those 
hearts are capable of the highest degrees of refinement — 
those Magdalenes can yet become the most humble and 
grateful worshippers at the Saviour's feet, and sing the 
loudest, sweetest song in heaven. We propose not, in 
this statement, to present the reflection of the whole liv- 
ing picture of female degradation. If we shall succeed in 
directing the attention of philanthropists to the subject in 
any created degree ; if we can induce a more earnest ex- 
amination into the condition of this important part of the 
great social system ; then our first object is gained. We 
ask attention, then, to the present condition of the fe- 
male sex in Christian countries, and more especially in 
this great metropolis. 

Mothers. We deem the maternal relation to be one of 
the most important in society. The human character, 
both intellectual and moral — nay, the entire man, physical, 
intellectual, moral, and social — is exquisitely flexible at a 
certain period of his life — this period is spent in closer 
contact with the mother than with any other being ; her 
influence is, consequently, the most powerful in forming 
the character of the future man. If you would trace the 
crimes and wretchedness of any one generation to their 
most immediate source, you would find them in the influ- 

15 



162 SEKJMOX VII. 

ence of mothers, in the power of example and precept, 
in the neglect of restraint, discipline, and cultivation. We 
believe, from our observation, and from the testimony of 
God, that the human heart is depraved ; that it is utterly 
deranged. But we also believe that the means of its re- 
covery are granted to man. At the most important period 
of his life, however, he is ignorant of his condition, and 
of the means of his improvement. He has no conception 
of the nature of his own being. Another must realize it 
for him ; he has no estimate of the mighty issues that are 
suspended upon the dispositions which he indulges, and 
the objects he pursues. Another must see all this for 
him; and, if he did feel it, he knows not by what means 
his character can be rightly formed. All this another 
must know for him. Now, what affects us in the matter 
is, that there are thousands who have the name, and oc- 
cupy the station, of mothers, to whom this difficult and 
important trust is committed, but who are utterly unqual- 
ified for it: they may not be deficient in natural affection, 
and in the qualifications that regard the lower wants of 
humanity ; but it is no exaggeration to say, that for all 
the higher purposes of training the human mind they are 
utterly unqualified. We find wide spread the fatal de- 
fects in mothers ; they are insensible to the solemn nature 
and responsibilities of the maternal relation, and they are 
exceedingly ignorant of the duties connected with that 
relation, and yet more ignorant of the mode of discharg- 
ing them. Another object of our attention is, 

The Young Female. There is a large number of our 
sex who regard females of a certain class in no other light 
than as the instruments of gratifying their basest desires. 
The basilisk eyes of lust are fixed on female innocence 
and purity, all unguarded as it is by experience, and un- 
suspicious of the first steps of seduction. And no sacri- 
fice of veracity and honour, of time, expense, and effort, 



PRACTICAL LOVE TO CHRIST. 163 

is considered too costly to secure the victim. The 
domestic arrangements of the metropolis require annually 
thousands of young females to forsake their friends, their 
parents, and their accustomed moral restraints ; and we 
are quite confident that hundreds of them come up, like 
a great holocaust, to be offered on the polluted shrines of 
lust ! Not more truly horrible, nor so fatal, is the march 
of the deluded worshippers to Juggernaut's festivals. 
These facts have arrested our attention. And we believe 
the Church will yet feel that something must be done to 
guard the innocent and unsuspecting, and to stay the 
work of death. But we find something still more terrific ; 
— there is a system and organization. Seduction has 
become a trade, conducted with regularity, and with 
business tact. Hundreds of trained and veteran pimps 
are now in the field. They circulate through the country, 
they are in the high places, and in the humble sections 
of the metropolis. Their hearts are like steel, and their 
consciences like the covering of Leviathan. Their plots 
are devised and their schemes laid with the skill of long 
experience. Stimulated by the love of money, reckless 
of the interests that are to be sacrificed at every success- 
ful issue of their hellish plots — nay, proud of that success 
— they are now at work. Yea, while we are deliberating, 
some infernal hand is spreading the toils. The victim is 
almost sure to fall. But who is it 1 Oh, it is the daugh- 
ter of a pious widow, whom poverty compels to send 
away her last earthly comfort. It is a link in the sweet 
circle of an affectionate family. But the hour of their 
chastisement has come. Their peace, their honour, their 
hearts, are to feel the lightning's shock ; the blast of 
death strikes one of their loveliest plants. Fellow Chris- 
tians, we can stand by and behold this no longer ; some- 
thing must be done for these two classes of females — the 
criminal and the exposed. And the first thing, we believe, 



164" SERMON VII. 

is, to secure the attention of Christians to the actual con- 
dition of society in Christian countries, and particularly 
in our large cities. It is impossible, to direct the energies 
of philanthropy to any object, until the relative impor- 
tance of that object is felt. The evil to be removed must 
be contemplated in the detail and in the mass, and we 
must expect to find at first much incredulity on the sub- 
ject. Thus it was with respect to the destitution of Bi- 
bles, and the extent of intemperance in America. When 
the first investigations were made, the results were in- 
credible to those who had become acquainted merely with 
some isolated case, and rested in vague conjectures con- 
cerning the actual extent of these evils. The results of 
examination were indeed appalling ; and, at first, the 
statement of them was received with great incredulity ; 
we are not, therefore, surprised to find that, when the 
first investigations were made in New- York on the subject 
of female prostitution, the publication created quite a 
commotion. The political journals took up the subject 
with violence to defend the reputation of the city, and to 
repel the " base aspersions." An exposure was made of 
the capital embarked in furnishing and renting of houses 
in the most sumptuous style, of the number of houses 
inhabited by abandoned females, of the number of mar- 
ried men who patronized them, of the number of annual 
seductions, and of the untimely deaths, and (which baf- 
fles the powers of numbers) the anguish and despair of 
these victims of criminal passion. The statements were 
denied and ridiculed by the wicked, and doubted by the 
good. Nor have we any means now of establishing their 
correctness, except the character and ability of the per- 
sons employed in gaining the information, together with 
the analogous results in other branches of benevolent 
operation. We are, accordingly, not surprised to find 
the statistics of prostitution in London the subject of 



PRACTICAL LOVE TO CHRIST. 165 

controversy, nor shall we be surprised to find the num- 
bers already given rather below than beyond the reality. 
It is time for the philanthropic portions of the com- 
munity to direct their sympathetic attention toward those 
two classes of young- females — the criminal and the ex- 
posed. It seems to be the glory of our age, that no 
branch of human misery and depravity — however tortu- 
ous its windings, however obscure its sources — shall be 
left unexplored. Organization, union, effort, for reach- 
ing degraded humanity, however situated — to remove its 
burdens, to lift it to the enjoyment of the blessings of re- 
demption — is ihe grand principle of the Church. And 
God grant that it may never be abandoned until Satan has 
abandoned his throne on earth ; but that there may be 
more union, more wisdom, humility, zeal, and energy. 
We are quite confident then that this form of human de- 
gradation and misery will not be overlooked. The evil 
is too great to be any longer disregarded. While the cry 
of the heathen, of the drunkard and his family, of the or- 
phan, of the prisoner, of the ignorant, is coming up to 
the ears of Christian sympathy, Oh let a place be found in 
this miserable group for the immortals who seem to be, 
by their circumstances, shut out from the light of the 
Gospel almost as effectually as the heathen. Nay, if we 
were not moved by compassion for the wretched victims 
of the great destroyer, there are considerations sufficient, 
connected with our own welfare, to secure our earnest at- 
tention to this subject. If we regard not their anguish — ■ 
their bitter recollection of days of innocence — their 
shame and remorse — their awful forebodings — if the 
numbers who are drinking these bitter waters — if the ten- 
der age of many of them — the former loveliness of oth- 
ers — do not affect us ; or, rather, if our consciences will 
permit us to pass by on the other side, and say, ' Be ye 
reclaimed, be ye saved' — let us, at least, consider their 

15* 



166 SERMON VII. 

influence on that society, of which we form a part, and in 
whose welfare we have so deep an interest. These mis- 
erable beings become, in their turns, the corrupters of 
others. All the power of female fascination is enlisted 
against society — many of them, in fact, turn upon our 
sex with a spirit of desperate revenge. Such was de- 
clared, in court, to have been the feeling and purpose of 
an unfortunate girl who was murdered in New- York last 
winter. Let us, then, recollect that our sons, our broth- 
ers — the young men of promise in our land — are not 
proof against the influence of those whose subtlety and 
skill has been so graphically noticed by Solomon : and 
let us remember, that these houses, in the midst of our 
dwellings, are " the chambers of death and the gates to 
hell" — our strong ones are enticed there, and they are 
lost to society, and often to heaven. 

But, while we have^here dwelt at some length upon 
one department of our labours, perhaps we have conveyed 
the impression that that is the most important depart- 
ment in our estimation. But this is not the case. All 
the children of the poor are embraced in our plans. We 
aim to secure the formation of their character at home — 
to make that sacred place (as God intended it should be) 
the school in which man shall learn his most valuable les- 
sons. We aim, in a word, in making the great social sys- 
tem more perfect — as Christianity is designed ultimately 
to make it — by establishing a more perfect harmony be- 
tween the members of the body — the one that has abun- 
dant honour and comfort having some line of communi- 
cation by which it may learn the wants and sufferings of 
the other, and thus sympathizing with it and imparting to 
it. This practical benevolence is just what God has so 
fully enjoined upon us in the Old Testament, and more 
impressively commended and commanded in the New. 
The Church is looking and praying for the great day of 



PRACTICAL LOVE TO CHRIST. 167 

Millennial light and glory ; but she looks for it in vain 
without that action which God has enjoined upon her. 
And that work is to be done in the detail. We raise 
large sums of money, and send abroad our missionaries 
in companies of five and ten, but those missionaries must 
at last come down to minute and specific labour, or they 
accomplish nothing. So must we here. And are objects 
around us too abundant 1 We propose, as the end of our 
labours, the diminution of temptations to profligacy to 
both sexes — to defend the innocent and unsuspecting — to 
expose the snares of the destroyers — to spread the know- 
ledge of the gospel among those who will not come to 
its regular ministrations — to diminish the amount of pub- 
lic crime and mendicity, and to advance the general in- 
formation of human minds. In a word, we hope to be the 
honoured, though unworthy, instruments, in God's hands, 
of banishing much actual misery, of preventing still more, 
and of pointing, successfully, many a perishing soul to 
the Lamb of God. Yes ; we indulge the hope of meet- 
ing — when the toils of life are ended — many, very many, 
whom God will give us as the seals of our labours, re- 
joicing in his immortal glory. We aspire even to the 
issue of seeing immortal spirits rescued from ruin, and 
obtaining the bliss of heaven for others, and the rewards 
of grace for ourselves — for we believe the hand of the 
Lord is in this enterprise. 

Brethren, the Church has too long rested in a general 
acknowledgment of this enormous evil ; she has too long 
doubted the mercy and the promises of God. We must 
no longer stand by and see Satan's ravages — beholding 
the wreck of the dearest human interests, and yet do no- 
thing. If there is malice towards man in hell, there 
must be love on earth ; if there is activity there, then we 
must have energy. Nay, if human agents are doing the 
work of darkness, then human agents must oppose them 



168 SERMON VII. 

with the weapons of light. If there is organization here 
for destruction, then we must meet it with organization 
for defence and deliverance. Our work is improvement, 
prevention, cure — all are feasible under God's approbation 
and blessing. With this general exposition of the ob- 
jects of the Society, you will then allow me to state the 
several branches of its operation. 

I. The Instruction of Mothers. To effect this a ma- 
tron is selected, of the requisite qualifications for gain- 
ing easy access to families, for adapting herself to their 
circumstances, and for instructing and counselling. It 
will be her object, first, to find a sufficient number of mo- 
thers who are willing to receive instruction, to form them 
into sections for the sake of convenience, and then to en- 
list some benevolent and experienced person, of her own 
sex, to take the particular charge of a section. After 
forming several such sections, she will make a uniform 
system for the whole, so far as is necessary, and superin- 
tend and direct the whole enterprise of these maternal 
meetings. In these meetings the obligations, the duties, 
and encouragement of mothers, will be explained and 
enforced. Children will then be made the subjects of 
special prayer ; but more of the details of the plan will 
be communicated by the Committee than we can proper- 
ly introduce here. But one subject of especial import- 
ance we may add in this connection. Poor and ignorant 
mothers must be taught the nature and extent of their 
children's danger. There must be excited in them a 
more lively abhorrence of the first step towards ruin, and 
they must be made acquainted with the snares of the 
wicked. They must teach and warn their daughters. 
They have a peculiar commission from God to do it, and 
the discharge of that trust must be urged upon them. 

II. Young Females. We propose to begin with the 
most ignorant, and to aim at improving their mental con- 



PRACTICAL LOVE TO CHRIST. 169 

dition, guarding them from dangers, and to labour for 
their eternal salvation. 

III. Young Children. We do not wish to interfere 
with the systems of public charitable instruction; but 
there is a wide field of usefulness left unoccupied after 
they have done all that they undertake. If other Insti- 
tutions are accomplishing all that is necessary, we shall 
then be able to direct our energies to the other depart- 
ments ; but we are sure that, after all which has been 
done to secure the religious education of poor children, 
the field is yet white, very wide, and inviting a multitude 
of labourers. 

IV. Females of Bad Character. Where prevention 
comes too late, we attempt a cure. There are hundreds 
of these wretched beings who can yet be persuaded to 
return to the paths of virtue. The Society has employed 
another matron, devoted entirely to this department. 
Her duty is to visit them ; to converse with them ; to 
distribute such tracts as are adapted to excite their fears, 
and to encourage them to abandon their destructive 
ways. Besides those, it has become evident that there 
are numbers who need no exhortation; they want direc- 
tion. They are weary as galley slaves of their horrible 
bondage, but their circumstances chain them. They 
know not how to change, nor where to go. They would 
fain return to their friends, but the door is closed against 
them there. They would return to society, but society 
despises them. There is, then, a most important part for 
Christian kindness to act. We may intercede delicately 
with friends, and we may have, in future, the same cheer- 
ing success which has crowned our past efforts. The 
hearts of anxious parents have been relieved — their 
prayers answered — the dead has been brought to life — 
the lost has been found. This should be the great ob- 
ject of solicitude — to have them restored to the friend- 



170 SERMON VII. 

ship and guardianship of their own kindred. But, where 
this is impracticable — as, in too many cases, they have no 
friend, no parent, no home — we must resort to the estab- 
lished method of forming asylums, with but one import- 
ant modification — the restriction of the size of each asy- 
lum — not allowing more than twenty or thirty to live 
together. 

Such are the objects of this Society, and such its pro- 
posed plan of usefulness. Its limited means have neces- 
sarily limited its action. But every stage of its infant 
history is marked with the encouraging impress of Di- 
vine goodness. We solicit the aid of the Church of 
God — of the friends of mankind — of all who desire the 
welfare of their fellow creatures. Surely the Saviour 
meant to embrace these very classes in his memorable 
description of the judgment. Surely he will recognise 
our efforts in this behalf, when we make them with 
reference to his glory. 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 171 



SERMON VIII 



THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION CONNECTED WITH THE PRO* 
GRESS OF RELIGION. 



" The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye 
the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a high- 
way for our God ; every valley shall be exalted, and 
every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the 
crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places 
plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and 
all flesh shall see it together ; for the mouth of the Lord 
hath spoken it.'''' — Isaiah xl. 3 — 5. 

It has been announced, that the subject of dis- 
course this evening would be the connection between the 
Temperance reformation and the revival of Religion. I 
venture to expand the idea a little beyond the notice, and 
say that it is the connection between the Temperance re- 
formation and the Millennium. 

Isaiah, in the striking and beautiful passage which has 
been quoted, spoke of John the Baptist. Our authority 
for this assertion is the direct declaration of the Spirit of 
God ; the record is contained in Matthew, the third chap- 
ter, the first three verses — " In those days came John the 
Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, 
" Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand ; for 
this is he, that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, say- 
ing, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare 
ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." He 
spoke of this eminent man, under the figure of the herald 



172 SERMON VIII. 

that was accustomed to precede the great monarchs of 
the east, when passing through the desert— such as on 
the celebrated journey of the queen Semiramis, when a 
road was made through the vast deserts of Western Asia ; 
the mountains were levelled, and the valleys were exalted, 
and the roads too circuitous were made more direct, and 
the rough places were reduced to smoothness, that the 
sovereign might pass with ease, and in suitable pomp and 
dignity. Under this beautiful imagery, designing alone 
the moral movement of the Messiah, and the moral pre- 
paration for his advent, and his reception in the hearts of 
men — under this beautiful imagery is described the com- 
ing of the Son of God to reign, not in temporal power, 
not over man in his political relations and interests, but 
over man in his moral relations, man in his affections, 
man in his moral, spiritual and eternal interests. 

There is something peculiarly striking in comparing 
this figurative language with the early preaching of the 
herald of our Redeemer. " Prepare ye the way ;" the 
Messiah is to come like one of those oriental monarchs 
in their visits to Palestine or to Egypt — is to come over 
a vast desert — and, when he comes, he will find mountains 
and valleys and crooked places and rough places impeding 
his march ; all ye people, attend ; your Sovereign is about 
to descend from heaven, and march athwart this wilder- 
ness, and come to bring redemption to his people ; " Pre- 
pare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert 
a highway for our God ; every valley shall be exalted, 
and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the 
crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places 
plain ;" and when this preparatory work is accomplished, 
" the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh 
shall see it together." Now turn to the preaching of 
John the Baptist. " In those days came John the Baptist 
preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent." 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 173 

In the fore-front of his mission — the first word of his ser- 
mon to a guilty world — is " Eepent." And what is the 
meaning of repentance 1 A change of mind. About 
what 1 About your life, about your maxims and princi- 
ples of action, about the objects of your heart's affection, 
about your pursuits, about your personal character and 
your personal conduct, about your business, your traffic, 
your social intercourse — every thing that pertains to your 
life : go home, and, under the solemn inspection of the 
eye of God, read your heart and read your life, and bring 
your business beneath the light of his holy law, and see 
whether they will stand the presence of the Son of man, 
who is coming to emancipate the human soul ; " repent — 
repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." And 
then, whatever individual man, or whatever particular 
class of men presented themselves to the Baptist, he di- 
rectly "laid the axe at the root of" their sin, and called 
upon them not to plead the customs of society, not to 
plead their belief that they had been right, not to plead 
the fact that their fathers had done so before them, but 
to change their minds and change their practices, and 
thus prepare for the coming of their King. "Repent! 
repent!" — he called upon them to "repent," to humble 
themselves, to deny themselves, to reform themselves, 
and thus prepare for the blessings of the new dispen- 
sation. 

There is something very remarkable, in the prophecies 
of the Old Testament. We learn the general principle 
to which I refer, from the practice of the New Testament 
writers themselves ; it is, that almost all the great pro- 
phecies in the Old Testament have more than a single 
meaning, and refer to more than one event. And it is 
evident, that this coming of the Son of God referred not 
merely to his coming in the flesh, not merely to the first 
outpouring of his Spirit, but to those great and glorious 

16 



174 SERMON VIII. 

things predicted in other parts of the prophecies concern- 
ing days that are yet to come, and that either we or our 
posterity (perhaps not very far distant) are yet to see. 
Who can doubt it, with this Bible in his hand, that there 
is to be a vast moral renovation 1 who can doubt it, that 
the arm of tyranny is to be broken 1 who can doubt it, 
that every chain of slavery is to cease to clank upon the 
creature made in the image of his God 1 who can doubt 
it, that the Saviour and Deliverer of mankind will make 
this world the theatre of his triumphs, and here, where 
Satan had reigned, the Messiah will set up his throne and 
gather his laurels and triumph over his enemies 1 

But if that day is to come, when "the earth shall be 
filled with the knowledge of the Lord," when " Holiness 
to the Lord" shall be written "upon the bells of the 
horses" and the vessels of our culinary establishments, 
evidently there must be vast changes. Whether it is 
this generation, whether it is your children, whether it is 
the generation after that — whoever it be, they will be a 
" repenting" generation. They will not plead custom, 
they will not plead that their fathers did so, and that good 
men do so still ; there will be vast changes of views, and 
vast changes of feeling, and vast changes of practice ; and 
there will be the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 
" Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the 
desert a highway for our God." 

My object this evening is to describe one of the 
mightiest obstructions to the influence of the gospel and 
the Spirit of God in this world. My object this evening 
is to describe one of the master machinations of the prince 
of darkness and the enemy of man. My object this night 
is to describe one of the most fertile sources of the tem- 
poral wretchedness and the immortal ruin of man, that 
Satan has let loose on this sin-polluted and cursed world. 
My object to-night is to show you that which must get 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 175 

out of the way, that the Messiah may come and reign in 
peace, in purity, in righteousness and mercy, over this 
wretched earth. 

With the Jews, it was not drunkenness, but religious 
error — it was pride of heart, it was superstitious attach- 
ment to forms and ceremonies — that the Baptist alluded 
to. With us, it is worldliness of heart, formality in reli- 
gion, unbelief of the declarations and promises of God, 
and prayerlessness in the Church. These are our heart- 
sins, which must be repented of, that Christ may come in 
greater power and greater glory to reign in the Church, 
and that " salvation may come out of Zion" to reign in 
the world. But these are heart-sins; there is, beside 
them, a lofty and rugged mountain which must be lev- 
elled. The habit of drinking intoxicating liquors — and of 
course, with it, the entire system and machinery of mak- 
ing and vending them — is one of the grand impediments 
to the coming of the Messiah. 

I lay down three propositions in the course of my 
remarks. 

I. The first is this — The habit of using intoxicating 
liquors as a beverage is one grand obstacle to the revival of 
pure religion and the coming of the expected Millennium. 

I enter first on explanation. 

I speak of these substances as beverages — as common 
drinks taken by men in health, not by sick men. I 
interfere not with the province of the physician ; I must 
say, we have a point to debate with them, but now I inter- 
fere not with them nor with their prescriptions. I speak 
of these substances taken as beverages by men in health, 
for the avowed purpose of their stimulating effect — for 
personal gratification — under the plea of nourishment — - 
and for the sake of social, convivial enjoyment. The idea 
of taking every day a medicine is too preposterous to 



176 SERMON VIII. 

meet and argue against. We are speaking of them now 
simply as drinks, as beverages taken by men in health. 

I include them all — the whole range of ardent spirit 
and of fermented liquors, wine and beer and cider, with 
all that is called ardent spirit ; I include them all. Their 
identity is established, in every way that the subject ad- 
mits. No man doubts, that the use of ardent spirit is in the 
way of the progress of the gospel of Jesus Christ ; but a 
distinction has been made, and it is upon that distinction 
I now direct my attack. If truth is with me, believe me : 
if not, let it pass, as the opinion of an individual, or of 
many individuals, not established by argument. 

I repeat, that under this proposition I include all that 
can intoxicate, used as a beverage. My proposition is 
that no man has a right to use intoxicating beverages ; he 
may have a right to use intoxicating medicines, but not 
drink them for his pleasure, and under the absurd notion 
of nourishment and for the purposes of convivial enjoy- 
ment. 

The identity of all these substances, I remark, is es- 
tablished in every way that the subject admits. We go 
first tojhe chemist. We ask him, what is the intoxicating 
principle in ardent spirits 1 He goes into a minute analy- 
sis ; he separates that from them which intoxicates, and 
which alone intoxicates ; he says it is alcohol — a substance 
discovered in the ninth century ; he says it is alcohol, 
modified as it may be. We go to the physiologist, and 
we ask him what he thinks of its effects upon the consti- 
tution of man 1 He says, that, when it goes into the hu- 
man system, it may go in connection with sugar, with 
wine, with various colouring matters, with many other 
substances, and all that goes in with it undergoes the 
healthful natural process of digestion, but alcohol works 
its way pure and separate out of the stomach into the 



TEMPERANCE. AND RELIGION. 177 

blood-vessels, and from the blood-vessels into other ves- 
sels, burning and scorching its way along the whole line 
of life, until the labouring struggling system throws it out 
at some one of its great operations. ' This is alcohol' — 
says the physiologist. We turn back to the chemist ; we 
ask him, 'Is there any difference between alcohol in 
ardent spirits, and alcohol in wine or beer or cider V 
He says, ' No.' ' Why 1 where is your proof V Mr. Brande 
says — " I have tried whether it is the heat in distillation 
that makes the alcohol, and I have proved that it is not, 
for I got alcohol out of wine without subjecting it to the 
heat of distillation ; I got alcohol out of beer and out of 
eider, not by heat; and I find that alcohol is the result of 
the second process of certain decaying vegetable and 
animal substances rushing to putrefaction j" and if man 
would let them go, and not stay them by any process, in 
a little while the substance would be a mass of putrefac- 
tion j but man has learned to stop it, and apply it -to 
purposes, for which the God of nature never meant it to 
be applied. When a man finds, that by laying fire upon 
the skin it burns it, although fire is a creature of God, he 
gathers from the fact a great law — that God intended he 
should not put fire upon his skin ; and when a man finds, 
that, if he puts alcohol into his stomach, it burns the 
stomach, and burns the brain, and burns the soul, he gets 
at a great law of God — that he should not put alcohol 
into his stomach. It* is one of the most absurd argu- 
ments — that it is a " good" creature of God. 

I wish to nail the great principles of this argument 
firmly in your judgment and conscience ; but I have not 
time to dwell upon them. So much, therefore, for the 
examination by the chemist and the physiologist. The 
question about alcohol in the abstract is of little avail to 
us ; we do not want to know what it is, where it is, or 
where it is not found ; but when we find it thus affecting 

16* 



178 SERMON VIII. 

the delicate frame of man, and (above all) rising up into 
the brain, and going into the soul, and blighting and deso- 
lating its energies and paralyzing its sweetest affections, 
then it becomes appropriate to introduce the discussion 
of it into the solemn debates, the solemn instructions, the 
solemn exhortations of the pulpit. 

We have already said, that all these substances have 
the same effect. Man can be made drunk on ardent spirit, 
on wine, on beer, on cider. Therefore they are all intox- 
icating substances. And in fine, as I have remarked, the 
intoxicating principle in each is the same thing ; the 
only difference is in the degree and amount of intox- 
icating substance contained in each. We find that this 
dreadful substance, when introduced into the human 
frame, remains undigested ; we find it coursing through 
the system, to paralyze its energies, to pollute the heart, 
to destroy the conscience, to ripen for crime, to enervate 
every noble faculty, to repress every aspiration of the 
soul after happiness, holiness, and immortal glory. We 
say, this is the tendency of all these substances — of all ; 
we say, the characteristics of alcohol are unique in all, 
and we challenge the denial of it. The difference in ef- 
fect is a difference of degree, not of kind. When Noah 
took the fermented juice of the grape and became drunk, 
he was as really drunk as the beer-drinker and the gin- 
drinker in your streets. When Lot drank the fermented 
juice of the grape, he became drunk and committed incest, 
as men now become drunk and commit incest, on gin, 
brandy and rum. It is the same thing, and it is absurd to 
draw a line of distinction. When Alexander the Great 
became drunk and killed his friend, and when he became 
drunk and died a sot and a beast, it was on wine ; and it 
is just as bad to get drunk, and die drunk, and murder 
drunk, on wine, as it is on beer and spirit. When Korah, 
Dathan and Abiram, got drunk on intoxicating fluid, they 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 179 

put the unhallowed hand to the altar of God and perished 
in their sins ', and God made from it a law, that the 
priests, when they went to minister at his altar, should 
never pollute themselves with it. The voice sounds from 
all Asia — it is alcohol, that is making all the natives 
drunk. It is alcohol in Europe, it is alcohol in Africa, it 
is alcohol in America, it is alcohol in the islands of the 
sea — alcohol ! alcohol ! the minister of hell, that has 
come to blight and curse this lovely earth, and this already- 
oppressed family of man. It is against alcohol, not in 
place, not as a chemical substance, not as God means it 
shall be used, (for he has a purpose in it,) but alcohol as a 
beverage, alcohol handed round the table, alcohol drunk 
to promote health, alcohol drunk to promote the flow of 
social feeling — it is against that we point our admonition, 
it is against that Ave lift our remonstrance, and it is that 
we say must get out of the way, this "mountain" must 
come down, that Messiah may come and reign. 

I have now simply explained myself on this propo- 
sition ; a few remarks to prove it more directly. I repeat 
the proposition ; — The habit of using intoxicating liquors 
as a beverage is one great obstacle to the revival of pure 
religion and the coming of the expected Millennium. 

I begin on the very lowest ground of proof — that, if 
they do not hurt, they do no good. It is a waste of the 
money, that ought to buy Bibles for the heathen and 
bread for the poor. They are of no use. I am as happy 
in drinking cold water, as the wine-drinker in drinking 
wine. I have tried both sides, and I would not exchange 
feelings with him. He has abandoned the cold water, 
that was the drink of our first father, (for there was nei- 
ther brewery nor distillery in Eden,) and he has got now 
into the sparkling circle, where the gayety is delusive ; 
but if he would only come back to that which was 
the drink of Adam in Paradise, he would find that God 



180 SERMON VIII. 

had made cold water as the beverage of man, and that 
cold water was most consistent with physical health, with 
intellectual energy, with moral purity, with domestic af- 
fection, with religious sensibility. They are all useless. 
Then they are worse. 1 will not stand this night, to 
say how much a man must drink to be drunk. I wish to 
be most distinctly understood in my statements on this 
subject ; I say, the tendency of one drop is just as much 
as a drop can do — and when you put two drops into the 
system, it is twice as much — and when four drops, it is 
four times as much — and when five drops, it is five times 
as much — and I know not the line where you begin to see 
the effects. I speak of the tendency of these drinks ; it 
is on the tendency I fasten my argument ; the tendency of 
them always is to produce the demoralizing effects, that 
you witness on a broader scale when they are taken in 
larger quantities. And here I state the fact, which first 
convinced my own mind. When I first heard Dr. Hewitt 
deliver a lecture, on ardent spirit alone, it seemed to me 
the most ridiculous thing I ever heard of, and therefore I 
am prepared to expect that others may think it very ab- 
surd to-night ; it seemed to me the most Quixotic under- 
taking I had ever heard of, and a feeling of independence 
arose in my mind, and I said — " What ! is this man com- 
ing to take my brandy and water from me 1 I will never 
give it up." It was a resolution formed hastily and igno- 
rantly blessed be God for the firmness and wisdom to 
overcome that wicked resolution ! The light has broken 
in upon my mind slowly, and I am therefore prepared to 
expect that many may think me ridiculous now ; but my 
mission to-night is, as a man, to speak the truth without 
hesitation — not to dogmatize, but to leave every one to 
answer in this matter before his conscience and before 
his God ; you will excuse me if I speak strongly, for I 
feel strongly — you will excuse me> if I speak firmly, for I 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 181 

think I see the truth like a sunbeam. Now the first 
thing, which convinced me that I must come out from 
the moderate system, to that which has been familiarly 
denominated the tee-total system, was this — that in the 
United States of America, there is no security whatever, 
(buy your wine where you will,) that you are not drinking 
ardent spirit disguised. And I venture to say, the prob- 
abilities are three or four to one in Great Britain, that 
your wines are composed of rum, or gin, or brandy, of 
the worst kind. The man that sits down with his friend, 
to quaff the substance which he calls wine, may have to 
say what I heard a minister say the day before yesterday — 
" Oh ! this is very vile stuff." Yes, so it may be — and so 
it is ; we have analyzed champaign in our country, and 
we have found it sugar of lead diluted and disguised. 
Think of a man sitting down with his friend to quaff 
sugar of lead — one of the most poisonous substances ! I 
say, the tendency of the whole family of them is destruc- 
tive and injurious, although one may so limit himself as 
not to reach the degree perceptible to his own mind. 

And I affirm further, that their moderate use forms, 
in every case of immoderate use, the first stage. I had 
occasion last evening to introduce an illustration of this 
on the platform ; I simply now state the abstract princi- 
ple. No man ever becomes a drunkard, but by beginning 
to drink moderately ; and as long as the world continues 
to drink moderately, the world will be full of drunkards ; 
and until the world ceases to drink moderately, the world 
will not be delivered from the evils that flow from intem- 
perance. The moderate use of these substances will per- 
petuate the immoderate. 

I refer now further, to establish my proposition, to 
the testimony of the Scriptures — the testimony of the 
Bible with regard to the effect of intoxicating substances 
on man as a moral and religious being. I will not now go 



182 SERMON VIII. 

over the large class of texts, that do most distinctly re- 
probate " wine" and " strong drink" in the Bible ; I shall 
come to them in the course of my argument. I speak 
at present of the examples it sets before us — as in the 
case of Lot, where his incest, his awful and abominable 
crime with his own daughters, is traced directly up to the 
use of wine. And it is strange, that the first thing that 
the Bible tells us about wine, the first picture of it that is 
painted upon its canvass, is drunken Noah ; and the next 
is drunken Lot ; as if it would tell the world — " There is 
the beginning of the dreadful chapter of drinking !" The 
Bible says, that "whoredom and wine take away the 
heart j" it puts it with whoredom. " Take away the 
heart!" That which "takes away the heart" is a hin- 
derance to the revival of religion and the introduction of 
the Millennium. 

Take the testimony of judges; take the testimony of 
jailers, who have had close intercourse with prisoners 
and examined their history. They tell us, that every 
where three-fourths of the crimes committed are traced 
up to the use of these substances — perverting, blinding, 
benumbing the conscience — hindering that sensibility 
from its exercise which inclines man to good, and 
strengthening that sensibility in its exercise which in- 
clines man to evil. 

So much for my first proposition. The habit of using 
intoxicating liquors as a beverage is one grand obstacle 
to the revival of pure religion and the coming of the ex- 
pected Millennium. 

II. My second proposition is — That the total cessation 
from the said use is in accordance with the Bible. No man 
need be afraid of going against the Bible by giving up 
the use of these beverages. 

1. In the first place, total abstinence is recommended 
by Scripture principles. When the apostle says, " It is 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 183 

good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any- 
thing whereby thy brother stumbleth or is offended or is 
made weak:" "If meat make my brother to offend, I 
will eat no flesh while the world standeth ;" he simply 
brings forward this great principle. Even if it were true 
that our Saviour made intoxicating drinks, even if it were 
true that he used them or that he gave them to others, 
yet in the face of that Paul says there may come a state 
of things, in which it would be my duty to give up wine, 
and I would do it then j if wine " make my brother to of- 
fend," I will give it up, I will abandon it. This is the 
great principle of benevolence. And I ask if we have not 
come into those circumstances now, when with the fabri- 
cated wine of our modern communities we can get noth- 
ing but ardent spirit diluted and disguised, and when we 
cannot get the beer bottle and the gin bottle out of the 
hand' of the poor drunkard unless we will sweep away all 
these substances together — I ask whether we have not 
come to the very juncture in human affairs, where the 
apostle Paul would say, 'I will give up these beverages, 1 
will sign the Temperance pledge, and I will give the poor 
drunkard the force of my example, that he may follow me 
and may get away from the source of his wretchedness.' 

If all men would act upon these principles, the world 
would get rid of drunkenness at once. If any one stands 
up on a temperance platform to descant on the evils of 
intoxicating liquors, and in order to quench his own thirst 
lifts the wine glass to his lips, I apprehend his own con- 
science will condemn him, and the common sense of the 
world will hiss him from the stage. There is something 
in man that admires consistency ; and it is impossible for 
a man, who avows himself a drinker of intoxicating liquors 
on a moderate scale, to make any effectual appeal to those 
that are getting drunk upon ardent spirits. 

2. I take the Scripture examples, that show it is in ac- 



184 SERMON VIII. 

cordance with Scripture totally to abstain. I take the 
example of the Nazarites, that were to be a peculiarly 
pure and select and favoured class of men ; and one of 
the indispensable injunctions was that they should never 
touch strong drink ; that Samson, who was to be the 
strongest man in Israel, was not to be a drinker of intox- 
icating liquors. I take the case of Daniel arid his com- 
panions ; and I dwell upon it with much interest in this 
view. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, ordered 
that certain men should be brought before him, "children 
in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful 
in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and under- 
standing science, and such as had ability in them to stand 
in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the 
learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans." These were 
to be selected from the children of Israel then in captiv- 
ity ; and the king in his kindness, and according to the 
light he possessed, " appointed them a daily provision of 
the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank : so 
nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they 
might stand before the king. Now among these were of 
the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and 
Azariah; unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave 
names ; for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar ; 
and to Hananiah, of Shadrach ; and to Mishael, of Me- 
shach ; and to Azariah, of Abed-nego. But Daniel pur- 
posed in his heart that he would not defile himself with 
the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which 
he drank ; therefore he requested of the prince of the 
eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had 
brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the 
prince of the eunuchs ; and the prince of the eunuchs 
said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath ap- 
pointed your meat and your drink ; for why should he 
see your faces worse liking than the children which are 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 185 

of your sort 1 then shall ye make me endanger my head 
to the king ;" he was one of those believers in the nutri- 
tious and healthful effects of wine. " Then said Daniel 
to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over 
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, Prove thy ser- 
vants, I beseech thee, ten days ; and let them give us 
pulse to eat, and water to drink" — (" water" said this 
wise man, " water to drink") — " then let our countenances 
be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the 
children that eat of the portion of the king's meat : and 
as thou seest, deal with thy servants. So he consented 
to them in this matter, and proved them ten days. And 
at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer 
and fatter in flesh, than all the children which did eat the 
portion of the king's meat. Thus Melzar took away the 
portion of their meat, and the wine that they should 
drink; and gave them pulse. As for these four children, 
God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and 
wisdom." It will be very safe to follow Daniel's exam- 
ple — physically and morally safe. It will be very safe to 
follow the example of the Rechabites, that were a Tem- 
perance Society for so many ages in the midst of the sur- 
rounding drunkenness of Israel. It will be very safe to 
follow the example of Timothy, who was so much ad- 
dicted (so entirely addicted) to the use of cold water as 
a beverage, that, when he became sick and needed wine 
as a medicine, the apostle had to recommend it to him, 
and actually to enjoin it upon him to take it. Timothy, 
then, was a cold water drinker. 

3. I take Scripture precepts upon the subject. I will 
mention only two, and pass rapidly on. " Look not upon 
the wine, when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the 
cup, when it moveth itself aright." " Wine is a mocker ;" 
and if God tells man to put himself under the influence 
of " a mocker," then we understand not the meaning of 

17 



186 SERMON VIII. 

Holy Scripture, which was given to " make us wise unto 
salvation." 

III. I pass on to my third and last proposition — That 
the total cessation from the use of intoxicating liquors as 
a beverage is necessary for the universal spread of the 
gospel. 

And here I establish my proposition, first, by the ac- 
tual effects of these substances, and of abstinence from 
them. And I wish you to look minutely into this point. 

Look at this effect ; in the city of London there is a 
large number of persons, that occasionally may feel in- 
clined to go to church ; but one of them is a mother, and 
she has not a garment with which a woman of proper 
feeling can bear to appear in a public assembly : and why 
not 1 because her husband has used up all their substance 
at the gin-shop ; if that husband would cease to drink in- 
toxicating liquor — if he were not made indolent by it and 
prodigal by it, and did not waste just so much of his daily 
earnings — he could buy the proper dress for his wife and 
his children, and then that wife and those children could 
go to church in proper character. I have no doubt there 
are hundreds of such cases ; and just so long as the use 
of these beverages exists, there will be a large portion of 
the poorer classes actually kept out of the church, and 
out of gospel institutions, for the want of proper clothing. 

I ask you to look at another fact. A large number of 
men are now unwilling to go to church, and indifferent 
about it, because they are continually stupified, and their 
religious sensibilities deadened, by the use of these in- 
toxicating liquors. And as long as they continue to use 
them it will be so ; but as soon as that spell is taken off*, 
conscience will awake, and the solemn striving of the 
Spirit of God with their souls will make them feel that 
the sanctuary is the place for them, and they must go to 
the sanctuary. 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 187 

Look, I ask you, further still. There are hundreds 
who come to our churches, whom the use of ardent spir- 
its entirely unfits to hear the gospel. It is not the eye 
fixed upon the minister, it is not the ear listening to the 
minister, it is the awakened heart receiving the message 
of the minister, that the minister wants ; and I will ven- 
ture to say, that every drop of intoxicating liquor that is 
taken has a tendency (I will not say to what extent the 
drop may go, but it has a tendency) to interfere with the 
profitable hearing of the gospel. And I go further, and 
I say that the congregation, who should see the minister 
in the pulpit sit down and drink two glasses of wine, 
would hardly stay to hear him preach ; and why 1 they 
would feel there was something like unhallowed fire 
about him ; — and yet they are willing enough to have 
their minister go down from the pulpit, and drink his 
wine in private. My friends, I believe the world is nearer 
right than the world believes, and that, if we could get at 
the secret consciences of men, they would be with us on 
this subject. We know, that if the declaration of Jesus 
Christ is true, there is a class of men who are the " stony 
ground" and the "way-side" hearers; and of all hearers, 
surely the drinkers and the tipplers of intoxicating liquors 
are the persons. We venture to say, that if the princi- 
ples of our Society could universally prevail, one of the 
chief temptations to thousands to stay away from the 
sanctuary — the enjoyments of the ale-house on the Sab- 
bath — would be withdrawn ; and when that pleasure is 
withdrawn, they would come soberly and solemnly to the 
house of God. 

There is another consideration : when the use of these 
substances ceases, there will be fewer temptations to 
backsliding in the church. Very early in the history of 
the church over which God made me pastor, we intro- 
duced the Temperance reformation, and applied it to 



188 SERMON VIII. 

every person seeking for admission ; and the effect has 
been, that that church has been less cursed with drunken 
members and doubtful members, (doubtful as to their so- 
briety,) than most of the churches with which I have 
been acquainted. We have sent a circular on this sub- 
ject to the ministers of the United States, and the returns 
are most frightful — that a large class of the troublesome 
cases have arisen from drunkenness, and there is an im- 
mense temptation to backsliding in the instance of those 
that are all their days walking on the borders of intoxi- 
cation. Is it not dangerous to be standing upon the fron- 
tier line of the enemy every day 1 is it not dangerous to 
" look upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its 
colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright," because 
" at the last it may bite like a serpent and sting like an 
adder V 

I believe in the bottom of my heart, although I may 
not be able to prove it to others, that if these substances 
were swept from our churches, the solemn and fervent 
spirit of prayer would increase at once. I believe it is a 
grand represser of prayer. I believe that the man who 
has taken three or four glasses of wine at his dinner, feels 
very unlike one going to prayer, and very unlike one going 
to weep at the foot of the cross. 

I believe if abstinence from intoxicating liquors pre- 
vailed and spread, there would be more money and more 
self-denial brought to the work of God in the world. 
Here we were told last night, that in four counties in 
Wales, where the cause of Temperance has spread most 
gloriously in the last year, their donations to the cause 
of Jesus Christ have increased in this one year by six 
hundred pounds. They have saved it, and their hearts 
are made more liberal ; and this money is cheerfully con- 
secrated to spread the knowledge of Christ through the 
world. 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 189 

I believe that ministers will physically have more 
strength, the day almost that they commence abandoning 
these substances. And the time is coming, when minis- 
terial strength will be taxed more and more. The church- 
es are giving us more and more to do, and the world is 
demanding more and more at our hands. We want strong, 
iron constitutions now in the pulpit. It is my firm belief, 
that every time a minister puts the intoxicating glass to 
his lips, he impairs his strength, he irritates the delicate 
nervous system, and so far unfits himself for his labours. 
It is the testimony of ministers that have tried both sides 
of the question, that their voices have become stronger, 
and that they feel altogether less exhaustion after preach- 
ing, when they go simply to the draught of cold water, 
if they need any quenching of their thirst after their ar- 
duous labours in the pulpit. It is the testimony of men 
of every class and every age. But I bring up one instance 
in particular. In the state prison of Auburn in the State 
of New-York, there are about eight hundred prisoners 
annually ; the rigid principle adopted there is, that every 
prisoner, from the moment he enters, is debarred the use 
of intoxicating liquor and of tobacco: the criminals have 
generally indulged largely in both these substances ; now 
what is the worst effect on these eight hundred prisoners, 
broken off from these indulgences suddenly 1 — (that is 
the great fear of the world, breaking off suddenly ; but 
what is the worst effect upon them 1) It is the testimony 
of the keeper (a most sensible man), and of the chaplain (a 
most pious man), that in some few cases the men are pale, 
debilitated, and suffer loss of appetite for a week or two, 
(that is the worst effect,) but that after the second week 
they all have a healthy bloom upon their cheeks, they be- 
come more healthy, and no man has been known to die 
from it. The testimony of the keeper and the chaplain 
is, that every man has risen in physical health and strength 

17* 



190 SERMON VIII. 

and cheerfulness from it. And we say there will be a 
vast increase of ministerial strength, when this doctrine 
shall become prevalent. 

You will allow me now to refer to one of the most 
important documents, which has been published in the 
United States of America on this subject. Before read- 
ing it, however, I beg to mention one single fact from the 
report of the New British and Foreign Temperance So- 
ciety; during the last year, out of 19,878 signatures, 2637 
were from reclaimed drunkards, of whom 479 have been 
deemed by pastors worthy of admission to church fellow- 
ship. Only in the past year, 479; and here is the infi- 
delity of our doctrine ! here is our infidel Temperance 
Society ! (as we have heard the objection wafted across 
the Atlantic.) Infidelity ! to bring men under the power 
of the gospel, and prepared to hear the gospel, and to 
sit down to celebrate the dying love of Christ ! 

Now let me turn to my own land, and tell of the effects 
of Temperance reformation. 

"In one town in Massachusetts, a Temperance dis- 
course was delivered near the close of 1827. Numbers 
renounced the use of ardent spirits, and conducted all 
their business without it. Many were anxious to form 
a Temperance Society : but some among the aged and 
influential thought that they could not do without a little, 
and no society was formed, till the young men, impatient 
at the delay of their fathers, called a meeting, and form- 
ed a society among themselves. They resolved to have 
stated meetings, collect information, and spread it through 
the town; and at the first meeting many were solemn, 
and at the second, anxious for their salvation; a prayer 
was offered and the Holy Spirit descended upon them ; 
the anxiety increased — became general and extended 
through the town — and more than two hundred, it is be- 
lieved, have passed from death unto life. Ten of those 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 191 

young men are now preparing for the gospel ministry ; 
and, should their lives be spared, and their talents conse- 
crated to the Redeemer, they may be instrumental in pre- 
paring many for an ' exceeding and eternal weight of 
glory ;' and, could we trace the influence of that single 
Temperance Society, in all its various connections, bear- 
ings and consequences, upon the temporal and eternal 
interests of men, the vision would be transporting. And 
when the committee saw these societies rising, and ex- 
tending their benign influences not merely over one but 
a thousand towns, and promising to extend them through 
the whole land and to all future ages, they could not but 
'thank God and take courage.' " 

The opinion of the Committee of the New-York State 
Society is supported by such facts as the following : — A 
distinguished gentleman from that State writes — " The 
great and good work of the Lord goes on in the midst of 
us j and the Temperance movement, like John the Baptist, 
prepares the way of the Lord. One might follow in the 
wake of this movement, and say, ' The kingdom of hea- 
ven is at hand.' " Another gentleman, from another part 
of the State, writes — " In this country, it is notorious 
that those towns which have been the most active in the 
Temperance cause, have been the most blessed by the 
Holy Spirit. In all the towns in this county, there have 
been revivals ; and, as a general remark, it may be said, 
that in every town, those neighbourhoods which have 
done most in the promotion of Temperance, have been 

most blessed in religious matters. In C , the Spirit 

has seemed to follow the Temperance effort from neigh- 
bourhood to neighbourhood ; and so in other places. In 
short, so manifest is the connection between Temperance 
and revivals of religion in this country, that we no more 
expect the latter where the former does not exist, than 



ft 

192 SERMON VIII. 

we expect snow in summer. This, of course, is a general 
remark. There are, undoubtedly, exceptions." 

I read next the statement of the General Assembly of 
the Presbyterian Church in the United States — that large 
and respectable body to which I have the honour to belong, 
composed of about two thousand ministers. They say — 

" It is now a well-established fact, that the common 
use of strong drink, however moderate, has been a fatal, 
soul-destroying barrier against the influence of the gos- 
pel. Consequently, wherever total abstinence is prac- 
tised, a powerful instrument of resisting the Holy Spirit 
is removed ; and a new avenue of access to the hearts of 
men opened to the power of truth. Thus, in numerous 
instances and in various places, during the past year, the 
Temperance reformation has been a harbinger preparing 
the way of the Lord ; and the banishment of that liquid 
poison, which kills both soul and body, has made way 
for the immediate entrance of the Spirit and the word, 
the glorious train of the Redeemer. But, a great work 
is still to be effected in the Church. The sons of Levi 
must be purged. The accursed thing must be removed 
from the camp of the Lord. While professing Christians 
continue to exhibit the baleful example of tasting the 
drunkard's poison, or, by a sacrilegious traffic, to make it 
their employment to degrade and destroy their fellow- 
men, those who love the Lord must not keep silence, but 
must lift up Their warning voice, and use alHawful efforts 
to remove this withering reproach from the house of 
God." 

And thus commissioned by my brethren and fathers 
in Israel, I do, in the strength of God, and the love of 
Christ and of his Church and of the souls of men, " lift 
up" to-night my " warning voice." However feebly, it 
speaks the truth ; and God is in and with his truth. 






TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 193 

I will read but one more document — " A gentleman 
from Tennessee writes, that the formation of a Temper- 
ance Society in his vicinity was followed by such a revi- 
val of religion, as in those parts was never before known ; 
that in numerous other places where Temperance Socie- 
ties were formed, they were followed by the same glori- 
ous results ; and that in a compass of about three miles, 
as the result apparently of the Temperance reformation, 
more than three hundred persons were hopefully added 
to the Lord. And so generally has it been followed by 
such results, that it is spoken of in various countries, 
and even on opposite sides of the globe, as ' John the 
Baptist,' preparing the way of the Lord. Whether the 
reason of this can be philosophically and satisfactorily 
explained or not, the fact is settled, that intoxicating 
liquor tends from beginning to end to increase human 
wickedness, and also to render that wickedness perma- 
nent. The men, therefore, who make it, and the men who 
furnish it, to be used as a drink, are, by their whole in- 
fluence in doing this, increasing the vices and augment- 
ing the woes of mankind. And though some of them 
profess to be friends of Temperance, and to wish to have 
it prevail and become universal, they are taking the very 
course for ever to prevent it." 

This is the testimony from the other side of the 
water. 

I now go on with my argument, and I proceed to state 
that the effects of total abstinence now are resembling 
the promised effects of the Millennium. What is the 
Millennium 1. It is to produce order. Go into that fami- 
ly, that a year ago was under the influence of a drunken 
father — go into that family, now a totally-abstaining fam- 
ily, and see how order and peace have begun to prevail. 
Peace — "peace on earth !" Look at peace restored in 
that family, look at peace restored in that neighbourhood ; 



194 SERMON VIII. 

see the dove, that has come to that family and to that 
neighbourhood with the olive-branch of peace in its mouth. 
It will not be by miracle, the reign of order and of peace 
will come in ; it will be by the simple operation of ordi- 
nary causes ; and here is one of those grand causes — the 
prevalence of the Temperance reformation. 

Love will more abound 5 for these intoxicating sub- 
stances render the heart more and more callous and more 
and more selfish. God has declared, that " there shall 
be none to hurt or destroy in all his holy mount ;" and I 
ask, if on " his holy mount" there will be a brewery or a 
distillery 1 No — no — no ! You never saw a brewery 
that did not curse the neighbourhood in which it was 
built ; you never saw a distillery that did not blight the 
land over which it rolled its fumes j and if that predic- 
tion is to come true, and if nothing shall hurt and noth- 
ing destroy in the holy mount of God, then there will be 
no fabrication of these intoxicating poisons. 

The very movement of the Temperance reformation 
collaterally aids the revival of religion. Look at its effect 
in bringing to view personal responsibility for personal 
actions and personal influence. It is doing just the very 
thing that John the Baptist did— making every individual 
feel his individual responsibility. Every Temperance ad- 
dress to the maker or the vender — every Temperance 
address to the drinker — of intoxicating liquors, calls him 
to look at the question again, Am I doing any hurt in the 
world] It makes men see, that that question, "Ami 
my brother's keeper V is a wicked question; you are 
" your brother's keeper ;" and the more powerfully does 
the Temperance question move on in the world, the more 
does it bring men to act under the solemn personal influ- 
ence of the feeling of personal responsibility. 

It brings lessons of self-denial. It is hard for a man, 
that has been living in luxury on the profits of these sub- 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 195 

stances, to go and close his distillery, and close his 
brewery, and close his ale-house ; it is hard, hut it is 
right — it is right — it is right. It is lovely. We have be- 
gun to see it done $ we have quenched the fires of nearly 
two thousand distilleries in our own States — not by force, 
not by legislative enactment, but by the power of con- 
science ; and I want to know whether these distillers, that 
went and put out their fires and sold their vessels for old 
copper, were not better members of society for it, and 
were not better prepared for helping onward the work of 
God 1 Let this glorious cause move on ; let all the pub- 
licans of London begin to tremble, as they see the blood 
of souls staining their hands ; let all those, that live by 
the profits of this practice, begin to weigh the question 
solemnly, and then determine to deny themselves for the 
good of their fellow-men ; that is one of the very prepa- 
rations for the glorious introduction of this gospel of 
self-denial. 

It creates sympathy for the most degraded. Temper- 
ate men have learned to love the drunkard. There is 
many a man that gives up drinking simply from this con- 
sideration. And I wish you to understand, that I am not 
perhaps to-night expressing the sentiments of the greater 
part of the Temperance Societies in Great Britain j I 
give up all these substances, because I think them all 
poisonous ; my brethren do not, and it is benevolent in 
them to give up drinking them, as they do ; it would be 
murder in me to give a man what I believe to be poison — 
it is benevolence in them. When a man banishes these 
liquors from his table, his guest maybe forming that very 
day the critical habit; or that very day he may be a re- 
covered drunkard. I know he subjects himself to all the 
pain of appearing niggardly and inhospitable and unkind : 
but it is noble to dare to do right, it is noble to bear 
sneers, it is godlike to love the poor drunkard, so that 



196 SERMON VIII. 

you say, ' This right hand shall go off rather than con- 
tribute one movement towards pushing the drunkard to 
destruction ; I come out and rid my hands from the 
whole, I come out and separate myself from the whole 
machinery of drunkenness, I do it for my brother's sake !' 
"When I was a little boy, the drunkard was my sport ; I 
joined with my companions in deriding him along the 
streets ; now I have learned to feel that the drunkard is 
my brother ; and those filthy rags that cover him, and 
that filthy mouth that utters out obscenity intolerable — 
they do not repel the man that has determined to hazard 
all to save a brother. This is still my brother ; and he 
may yet be washed and renewed and saved, and shine in 
the presence of God — an angel for ever. 

You will bear with me perhaps still further, while I 
state this great point in confirmation of my argument ; 
we must send Christianity to the Pagan, but it must be a 
purified Christianity — it must not be a wine-drinking 
Christianity. When the colonists went to the United 
States of America, (which were the colonies originally,) 
they found there the Indian ; what have they done to the 
Indian 1 they have almost exterminated the tribes; how] 
the sword has done something, but strong drink has done 
the work : and, if you want now to see a degraded being 
on earth, go to the once lord of the forest. You have 
heard of that elevated bearing, that showed him free 
as the air he breathed, and as the leopard of the woods, 
or the mountain goat ; now what is he % he is the most 
perfect beast in the shape of a man, that can be found 
upon earth ; that is now the Indian lurking near American 
habitations, the habitations of Christian and civilized men. 
Why % He is drunk from morning to night, if he can get 
intoxicating liquor. Was the Indian a drunkard, when 
we went there 1 No, no ; when the Englishman landed 
there, the Indian knew none of the curse of intoxication. 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 197 

But he has learnt it ; and I am afraid God has yet a con- 
troversy with my beloved nation for that, as well as some 
other sins. Oh ! is this the way to lift up a nation — to 
carry them these polluting substances'? I would that 
every Missionary were a drinker of nothing but cold 
water. Why now one of the grand difficulties that our 
Missionaries meet with is the presence of our commercial 
men and our sailors at the stations ; they say, ' There is a 
specimen of what you want to make us; you want to 
make us like those drunkards ;' and they have laughed 
at the Missionary ; and well may they. ' That is Christi- 
anity !' Well, the Missionary says, ' But these are drunk- 
ards !' ' What makes them drunkards V ' Strong drink.' 
' Well, is that the line of demarcation in your country % 
have all Christians given it up V i Oh ! no ; strong drink 
is made by Christians, and drunk by Christians ; it is in 
the Church that this strong drink lies.' That is what the 
Missionary has to tell the Pagan infidelity and in truth ; 
and as long as he does it, here lies a powerful restrainer of 
the influence of our Missionary exertions. Which of two 
Missionaries would you rather have go to the heathen — a 
man that tells them to drink cold water, or one that tells 
them to drink moderately intoxicating liquors 1 

You will bear with me in the last argument on this 
proposition — the little that can be pleaded on the other 
side. What is it 1 

One man says, I have to take it as a medicine. Now 
mark ; every such person is on our side, and he ought to 
be atee-totaller. Every physician that prescribes it as a 
medicine is with us, and every patient that takes it as a 
medicine is with us — because it cannot be a medicine and 
a beverage too ; it is one or the other. We contend that 
it is a medicine, we contend that it is a poison, fit to be 
given to sick persons under careful and proper prescrip- 
tions ; we deny that it is proper to take as a beverage. 

18 



198 SERMON VIII. 

All these, I say, are with us, because the idea of telling 
people to drink a little diluted arsenic every day because 
a physician prescribes it to the sick is preposterous. So 
I once said, after arguing on the deck of a steam-boat with 
a gentleman upon this subject, for about half an hour, in 
the presence of a crowd of passengers that gathered 
around us. He appeared to be affected, because I had 
pressed his conscience with the truth ; " My dear sir," 
said he, " it is cruel in you." " What is cruel in me V 
" Why thus to press me, when my physician has told me 
that I must drink it or die." " My dear sir, why did not 
you tell me at the beginning of the argument, you were 
an invalid 1 and why have you been for this half hour en- 
deavouring to persuade al] these people round you to take 
your medicine ?" I do not wish to destroy that plea, and 
this is not the place nor the time to treat of it ; but I do 
wish this distinction to be made, that every person, who 
advocates its use as a medicine, then gives up its use as a 
beverage, or else it would present this strange anomaly, 
that the only medicine in the whole materia medica to be 
so used is alcohol. It is not so with nux vomica^ it is 
not so with coculus indicus, it is not so with laudanum, it 
is not so with opium j it is only so with alcohol. We 
venture to say, that, when that point comes to be reflected 
upon closely, it will be abandoned. 

Appetite can be pleaded. Interest can be pleaded. 
The rules of hospitality can be pleaded. And so can the 
Scriptures, inasmuch as on this important subject the 
Bible seems to recommend the use of wine. Now I will, 
as briefly as I can, present my views on that difficult and 
delicate point. 

I will say (to begin) that, if I can find that my blessed 
Redeemer made and gave intoxicating drink, I drop my 
strong argument : I simply then say, that I find I am bet- 
ter without it, and I cannot tell but what other people are- 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 199 

better with it ; I give up the Temperance cause, because 
I advocate it on the belief that intoxicating drink (or alco- 
hol rather) is a poison, and I do not believe Jesus Christ 
ever made poison to give to a man in health. I state this 
in order to show my profound reverence for the authority 
of my Saviour, and to dissociate myself entirely from the 
infidel spirit and the infidel man that would say, I will 
maintain my Temperance let the Bible go where it will. 
I have no part nor lot with him. 

Now I say it is a question of interpretation, a question 
as to the meaning of language. When Jesus Christ is 
said to have made " wine" for the feast at Cana, the ques- 
tion is, what does that word wine mean 1 I want to get 
light on that fact. I find that there are two kinds of wine 
mentioned in the Bible, because I find that the Bible in 
other places reprobates the use of wine in the most un- 
qualified language. Do you believe, that Jesus Christ 
sat at table and made for a company of people that, which 
the Holy Ghost has denominated " a mocker V 1 Do you 
believe, that the divine Saviour said, " Look not upon 
wine," and yet " I will make it for you" — make that which 
" at the last will bite like a serpent and sting like an ad- 
der 1" I say it is evident, that in the Bible two kinds of 
wine are mentioned. Well, then, in this case which kind 
was it % Here I get light. I go and examine the nature 
of alcoholic wine ; I find it always the same ; I find it to 
be just that kind of substance described in the Bible, 
" sparkling in the cup," and I find it " biting like a ser- 
pent, and stinging like an adder," and leading on to 
whoredom, and with whoredom " taking away the heart" 
of man ; I find it treating men just as it did Noah, just 
as it did Lot, just as it did Korah, Dathan and Abiram ; I 
find all its effects, just as described by the prophets in 
their solemn reproofs of Israel. Then, I say, I am inclined 
to believe a priori that Jesus Christ never made it j and 



200 SERMON VIII. 

when I find that there were two kinds of wine in use 
among the Jews, I rest in the conviction that he made 
that which was not intoxicating, and that in the Lord's 
supper he gave the fruit of the vine, and not the putrify- 
ing substance that is now called wine — that he gave the 
pure juice of the grape. I ask a person how he recon- 
ciles the Bible, if he supposes there was but one kind of 
wine; our view of it takes the passages that reprobate 
wine to speak of wine that intoxicates, and takes the pas- 
sages that sanction wine to speak of the wine that does 
not intoxicate. And I will mention here, (as I have known 
it to throw light on some minds,) that you will remem- 
ber, in the case of the chief butler in the prison relating 
his dream to Joseph, he says that he squeezed out the 
juice of the grape into Pharaoh's cup. There you see 
was the juice of the grape immediately drunk : and I find 
it a very pleasant drink. We thus find the Scriptures 
harmonize with nature, with chemistry, with physiolo- 
gy, with fact ; you do not : you cannot reconcile the 
thing, and we cannot reconcile the thing. 

And then, further, I say none of you I believe would 
like to have your children grow up in the same habit ; or 
I believe you would feel safer in having your children 
give it up, and you would wish, that, though you may use 
them, the next generation might leave them off, and you 
feel that the world would be better. 

I make, in closing, one or two inferences from my 
subject. 

And I say that the venders and manufacturers of in- 
toxicating liquors ought to take the subject into most 
solemn consideration. They ought to be able to call, if 
they have truth on their side — and I wish they would do 
this, I wish they would call — Anti-Temperance meetings. 
I wish they would have their strong men, and their strong 
ministers and their strong speakers come out and enlighten 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 201 

us. We had a glorious meeting last night; we had a 
meeting full of soul, full of heart, full of earnestness, and 
full of eloquence ; it was a blessed meeting, and for one I 
felt ' God approves it ;' for one I felt as if we that promoted 
it were receiving the thanks of humanity. I ask them 
to get up such a meeting, and bring forward their strong 
arguments and show that they are right. All I hear is in 
secret ; I see a sneer or a laugh ; I am met at this table a*id 
at that table with a jeer and a joke, and a passing jest thrown 
out here and there. I wish if there is not truth on our side, 
we might be stopped. If we have exaggerated views, they 
must all come down — for nothing but truth will live and tri- 
umph. But after all that, I say I think that every man en- 
gaged in the manufacture of intoxicating liquor as a beve- 
rage, every man engaged in preparing it or offering it for 
sale, to tempt the public appetite and to tempt the poor 
drunkard — ought to stop, and ask whether this is not one of 
the " mountains" that must come down, whether this is 
not one of the " crooked places" that must be made 
straight, one of the " rough places" that must be made 
plain, that the Son of God may come in his gospel and 
in his Spirit. I ask the calm and candid consideration of 
those, that are engaged in the manufacture or the traffic. 
They will bear with me, as a man ; I speak in much love 
to them, and to society, which I believe they are injuring. 
No matter how kind your intention, no matter how kind 
your feeling, T believe you are stabbing society in its 
dearest interests. If I am wrong, do not believe me ; 
but if I am right, do not be offended, because I speak it in 
love ; I speak it as one that must stand at the bar of God, 
and hear again what I say from this place of authority 
and of instruction ; I say, you are helping to make the 
drunkards of London and the drunkards of England— you, 
and none but you are making drunkards. You say, they 
make themselves : I know they do ; but you had better 

18* 



202 SERMON VIII. 

go deeply into that solemn question of moral philosophy, 
whether the man, that knowingly contributes to the ruin of 
another, even by that other's fault, will not be held guilty 
at the bar of God. The man, that had an ox which was 
known to gore, and let the ox go loose for his pleasure 
or profit — God said let him answer even to his life for 
the life of any that may be killed. The man, that had a 
flat roof, an oriental roof, without any battlement, God 
held him accountable if any fell down, because he had 
neglected to put up a parapet, and the blood was required 
at his door. Take care you are not found accessary to 
drunkard-making in a guilty sense. 

I ask you to look at this fact ; your success is the 
ruin of the public and of families. Every bottle and every 
glass you send out goes on a mission of misery and of 
death. The drunkard is on the outer circle of the vast 
whirlpool, and you are tempting him carelessly to float 
along, and each succeeding circle turns shorter and 
shorter, and you just turn away when the poor creature 
with one ineffectual struggle sinks to rise no more. Oh ! it 
is a dreadful trade, to be making drunkards. It is a dread- 
ful thing, to sell out the large mass in pipes and hogsheads 
and barrels, that you know goes forth like scorching 
streams of lava through the community. You know it 
will curse that poor family ; you 'know it will make that 
man prodigal of his property, and careless of the wants 
of his children and his wife ; you know it will produce 
poverty and disease and misery, and death and hell to 
men. Perhaps this bottle will not, but that bottle may ; 
perhaps this pipe will not, but that pipe may. It is cer- 
tain that somebody is doing the work of death. Six hun- 
dred thousand drunkards in England ! who makes them % 
who sustains them % Nobody % Does nobody make money 
out of these six hundred thousand drunkards'? These 
six hundred thousand rob their families, rob themselves, 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 203 

rob the public (for they become paupers) ; who gets the 
money 1 See if it is not in your hands. 

My brother, I do not charge you ; I only ask you to 
look at the matter. I ask you to go home and pray over 
your trade. But how will you frame your prayer % Will 
you ask God to send you more customers and more drunk- 
ards to your brew-house or to your shop 1 why, then you 
ask to have more of his creatures ruined in body and in 
soul ! Oh ! it is a dreadful place to hold a prayer-meet- 
ing — a distillery or a spirit-cellar. I should think a man 
could hardly ask God to bless such a trade. I should 
like to see how he would pray over it. Would he say — 
O Lord ! do not let this bottle do any harm ; counteract 
the poisonous and soul-hardening effects of this alcohol ; I 
do not want to hurt any one, I only want to get the profit 
of tempting them to their ruin ; I do not want to do the 
harm that this must do in the natural course of things!' 
Dare he speak so to his Maker 1 

Let me state one other fact ; there are widows praying 
against you ; there are widows in this city lodging a suit 
in Heaven's chancery against you. They are weak ; 
you may not be afraid of them. But God hears them ; 
and when the wife says, 'May God restrain the arm, 
that is taking away my husband !' — and when the widow 
sometimes says, in the agony of her soul, ' God blight the 
arm, that administers that poison !' — oh ! it may be heard, 
it may be heard. I would not stand with you ; I would 
not live, ministering out the poison to my fellow-men. 

I say (to close the whole) to the vender, to thetraffic- 
er, to the manufacturer : — You may ruin one soul by it ; 
one man may die a drunkard, by that which you make 
and that which you sell — one man, one immortal soul, 
just one ! And as God has said no drunkard shall enter 
the kingdom of heaven, what will be your gain if you 
make one — if that one at the judgment day shall lift up 



204 SERMON VIII. 

his voice, and say, You, you were the author of my guilt, 
my Avretchedness, my damnation 1 

My hearers, T close ; but my heart — my heart feels 
for man. My heart prays, that God would incline his 
church to come out, (to a man to come out,) and rid them- 
selves of the whole machinery of drunkenness, and all its 
connections, and all its ramifications, and all its work of 
death. 

" Prepare ye, prepare ye the way of the lord." 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 205 



SERMON IX 



ON THE TRAFFIC IN INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 



" Thou shalt not kill" — Exodus xx. 13. 

This is a part of the law of God which is given to every 
human being. And whether heeded, or disregarded, it 
forms a part of the great standard by which, in the day 
of final judgment, every man's actions will be tried. Its 
design is obvious. Like every other divine command or 
prohibition, it states the rights either of God, or of his 
creatures ; and demands a regard to these rights on the 
penalty of eternal death. One command guards one pre- 
cious interest ; another presents and defends another. 
The prohibition before us, brings to view one of man's 
dearest earthly interests — his life. It is a gift of God, a 
precious boon. Most tenderly has he guarded it ; most 
sternly does he threaten, and most dreadfully will he ex- 
ecute every ruthless invader who lifts his hand ; yea, who 
harbours in his heart a desire against it. Here the laws 
of man in every civilized society have imitated the law of 
God. And as nations advance in civilization ; while they 
are continually mitigating the punishment of other 
crimes ; they still hold out the severest of all their penal- 
ties against this : — " Thou shalt not kill." 

If this is a command of God, binding us all to avoid a 
certain course of action ; all are bound to understand its 
meaning and extent ; and it must be the solemn duty of 
every interpreter of the divine law to explain it faithfully. 
I shall resort to two sources of explanation. One is the 



206 SERMON IX. 

statute book of God's moral kingdom, the other is the 
criminal law of civilized nations; which is the result of 
the combined wisdom and maturest reflections of succes- 
sive ages. And we will first consult the laws of men, and 
carry out their principles to their legitimate results, con- 
sidering them as sound expositors of the divine law. For 
it is a very interesting observation, that the wisdom and 
mercy of God's laws have been discovered by the very 
necessities of society, just as far as it advances in the 
attainment of happiness. The first thing we find, is the 
division of murder into two degrees. The difference be- 
tween them appears to be this. It is murder in the first 
degree to kill another intentionally — in the second de- 
gree, to kill unintentionally. And the second degree is 
deemed guilty, just in proportion as there is manifested 
a selfish indifference to human life. We notice again, 
that the length of time between doing the act which causes 
death and the death itself, does not alter the criminality, 
provided the testimony of medical men will only show 
that the act was the cause of the death> We notice 
again, that a distinction is made between two cTasses of 
murderers, without any difference in their guilt or pun- 
ishment. They are principals and accessories. A prin- 
cipal does the fatal deed. An accessory makes, or gives, 
or sells the fatal instrument, or in some way, knowingly 
sustains the principal. With regard to the second degree 
of murder, they define it an act which produces death 
under circumstances manifesting not intention to kill, but 
a wicked recklessness of human life. — For example : the 
suffering a beast to run at large, when it is known to be 
mad, or in any way dangerous. You will notice it is the 
suffering the beast to run at large. But if a man should 
turn out such a beast, suppose a lion or a tiger, whether 
for sport or profit, and it takes away life ; this is pro- 
nounced murder in the second degree. We may cite 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 207 

one or two cases from law reports, to illustrate what is 
meant by homicide. A son who cruelly and unnaturally 
exposed his sick father to the open air in inclement 
weather, whereby his death was occasioned, was held to 
be guilty of murder. And so was a woman who caused 
the death of her child, by leaving it in an orchard, scant- 
ily covered with leaves, whereby it perished. This is, 
then, the decision of human justice ; that to constitute 
murder, it is not requisite either to use a deadly weapon, 
or to show any other feelings than those of selfish indif- 
ference to human life. And we may notice once more, 
what our laws say about the instrument by which death 
is caused. They say it is murder, whether it be by sword, 
fire, fire-arms, drowning, beating, or poison. You will 
notice, they say — poison. And then our courts depend 
on physicians to tell them what are poisons. And here 
I must stop a moment to inquire whether it can be more 
wicked to kill by one poison than by another 1 Does it 
make any difference to the interests of society, whether 
you murder by arsenic, or by alcohol, if both be poisons 1 
Does it make any difference to the law of God, to an en- 
lightened conscience, to the agonized wife or parent, to 
the poor suicide who has rushed to the bar of his God, 
unbidden and unforgiven % Yes, my hearers, it does make 
a difference. And you shall yet see on which side the 
difference lies. But I have only anticipated so much, in 
order to show that human laws are not consistent with 
themselves — that murder by one poison is punished with 
the most ignominious death, while murder by another is 
sustained by the very same code. And another of its 
imperfections, which indeed is intrinsic, is this — that it 
has tried in vain, to punish self-murder. The ignomini- 
ous exposure of the corpse was a punishment which 
alio-hted alone on the broken-hearted, innocent survivors. 
God, however, can punish suicide. And there is, my 



208 SERMON IX. 

hearers, another law by which, and another tribunal at 
which, all men must be judged. I have referred to hu- 
man laws, merely because, as far as they go, they illus- 
trate the divine. But, as has been remarked, they do not 
carry their own principle far enough, and hence are in- 
consistent with themselves. Not that I can discover in 
the Bible any other principles on this subject, than those 
now described. But it is evident, as the Psalmist says — 
" Thy commandments are exceeding broad." There is 
an extent of application, which is not known in human 
jurisprudence. It is said, for instance — "If a man hate 
his brother, he is a murderer." Here is murder detected, 
condemned and punished, when found only in the heart, 
without an overt act. I admit that human tribunals can 
never judge thus. But our Judge will. When our Sav- 
iour explained the Mosaic law, he remarks — " It has been 
said, thou shalt not kill, but I say unto you, whosoever 
shall say to his brother, thou fool, is in danger of hell 
fire." Here, in explaining the sixth commandment, he 
ranks the mere expression of contempt as in God's sight 
tantamount in guilt, to murder. Even under the Mosaic 
law, it did not require any direct act which caused death, 
to constitute murder. It was then just as it is now : if a 
man had an ox that was known to push with his horn, and 
he killed a man ; both the ox and his owner were held 
responsible, and both were sacrificed. Or, if he built a 
house ; as their roofs were flat and places of much resort 
in that warm climate ; if he neglected to put up a parapet 
on the outer and inner wall ; and by that neglect a man 
should fall over and be killed ; the blood was upon that 
house. 

We see then, the following principles embraced in this 
law : — 

1. Certain things are means of life and happiness, when 
used in a certain way. For instance, you may employ 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 209 

firearms to destroy beasts of prey, poisons as medicines, 
alcohol in manufactures, &c. 

2. These articles may be made instruments of misery 
and death, by being used in certain other ways. Fire- 
arms may be used to take away the life of an unoffending 
fellow creature. Arsenic or alcohol may be taken into 
the human system in such quantities as to destroy life. 
The latter has indeed been called " a good creature of 
God." So is fire, but is that any reason why you should 
kindle it in the middle of your floor, or upon your bed 1 
God made every thing to be put in its right place, but as 
we shall presently see, he never made alcohol for the 
human stomach, nor the human stomach for alcohol. 

3. To use them thus on our own persons, or rather to 
abuse them, is suicide. 

4. To give them gratuitously, or sell them to another 
to be thus abused, is murder. 

To illustrate — if you sell a deadly weapon to a man, 
when you know his intention thus to abuse it ; if men can 
prove that you know it ; they will convict you of murder, 
as an accessory. And as God can prove it, he will cer- 
tainly hold you guilty. 

5. Human and divine laws admit but one excuse or 
plea. That is — involuntary or unavoidable ignorance ; 
when you could not know the use to be made, or had no 
reason to suspect such use ; or if you could not know 
the tendency of the article to produce death when so 
used. For if you had, and yet sell or give, it betrays 
that very recklessness of life, after which the law searches. 

I would now pass from this dry discussion, to consider 
the following proposition. 

To use alcohol as an ordinary drink, is suicide. To 
make, give, or sell it to be so used, is murder by the stat- 
utes of Heaven j and ought, in consistency, to be, by the 
laws of human governments. It was some time after the 

19 



210 ' SERMON IX. 

reformation commenced, before its friends would call the 
"moderate" use of alcohol, immoral. They were yet 
more cautious in pronouncing the traffic an immorality. 
But there is now no hesitation on the part of those who 
have thoroughly examined the subject. 

We will first introduce some comparisons that have 
been made. 

" The time will come when reflecting men will no more 
think of making and vending ardent spirit, or of erecting 
and renting grog-shops, as a means of gain, than they 
would now think of poisoning a well, from which a neigh- 
bour obtains water for his family, or of arming a maniac 
to destroy his own life, or the lives of others." — Chancel- 
lor Walworth. 

" Can it be right for me to derive my living from that 
which is spreading disease, and poverty, and premature 
death throughout my neighbourhood 1 Would it be right 
for me to derive my living from selling poison, or from 
propagating plague or leprosy around mel" 

" Can it be right for me to derive my living from that 
which is debasing the minds, ruining the souls, destroying 
for ever the happiness of the domestic circle, filling the 
land with women and children in a condition far more 
deplorable than that of widows and orphans ; which is 
the cause of nine-tenths of all the crimes which are per- 
petrated in society, and brings upon it nine-tenths of all 
the pauperism which exists j which accomplishes all these 
at once, and which does it without ceasing ? Do you say 
you are not responsible for the acts of your neighbour 1 
Is this clearly so 1 Is not he who navigates a slave-ship a 
pirate V — Rev. E. F. Wayland, a Baptist. 

We will now introduce some of the epithets that have 
been used. 

" It cannot be denied that distillers, venders, and pur- 
chasers of ardent spirit are accessories to the crimes of 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 211 

drunkenness. It is an unhallowed traffic, and like that 

IN HUMAN BLOOD, SHOULD RECEIVE THE REPROBATION OF THE 

christian world." — Circular Letter of the Nova Scotia 
Baptist Association. 

" Who made the 300,000 drunkards that now defile and 
disgrace our country 1 Who caused the death of the 
30,000 sots who have died in the United States within the 
past year 1 Where does this responsibility rest 1 It 
must be somewhere. It can be nowhere else than upon 
the dealer in ardent spirit. I am deeply convinced the 
evils of intemperance can never cease, till the virtuous 
in society shall unite in pronouncing the man who at- 
tempts to accumulate wealth, by dealing out poison and 
death to his neighbour, as infamous ." — Rev. Mr. Pierpont, 
Unitarian. 

" I consider the man who deals in ardent spirit, a pi- 
rate on the rights of community." — Gerrit Smith. 

We will now introduce a few of the assertions that 
have been made. 

" To make or sell ardent spirit for common use, is as 
wicked as to make or sell poisons for the same purpose. 
It being admitted that the use of this article is destruc- 
tive to health, reputation, and property, (and the proof 
on this point is overwhelming,) it follows conclusively, 
that those who make it, sin with a high hand against God 
and their fellow men. The blood of murdered souls and 
bodies will be required at their hands.'''' — Judge Dagget, of 
Conn. 

" This question we fearlessly submit to reason and to 
conscience. Is it not morally wrong 1 Is it not an of- 
fence against sound morality and true piety 1 We fear 
that all engaged in this traffic, will be held amenable at 
the tribunal of the great day, not only as partakers of 
other people's sins, in directly furnishing them with the 
means of committing the sin of intemperance, but as re- 



212 SERMON IX. 

sponsible too, along with them, for those deeds of iniquity- 
committed while under the influence of the intoxicating 
draught." — Glasgow paper. 

" The traffic in ardent spirit as a drink, is an immoral- 
ity, and ought to be viewed as such throughout the 
world." — Synod of Albany, and Gen. Associations of Conn., 
Mass., and Maine. 

" The evil effects of ardent spirit are not exhibited 
alone on those who drink it. The very traffic stands un- 
rivalled for its hardening and debasing influence on those 
engaged in its operations." — John L. Chandler, M. D. 

" No one can doubt that the traffic in ardent spirit is 
productive of immorality." — Rev. D. Skinner, Univer- 
salist. 

" I challenge any man who understands the nature of 
ardent spirit, and yet, for the sake of gain, continues to 
be I engaged in the traffic, to show that he is not involved 
i*\ the guilt of murder." — Dr. Beecher, Presbyterian. 

" They who keep these fountains of pollution and 
crime open, are sharers, to no small extent, in the guilt 
which flows from them. They command the gateway of 
that mighty flood, which is spreading desolation through 
the land ; and are chargeable with all the present and 
everlasting consequences, no less than the infatuated vic- 
tim who throws himself upon the bosom of the burning 
torrent, and is borne by it into the gulf of wo." — Dr. 
Spring, Presbyterian. 

"No proposition seems to me susceptible of more 
satisfactory demonstration than this ; that in the present 
state of information on this subject, no man can think to 
act on Christian principles or do a patriots duty to his 
country, and at the same time make or sell the instru- 
ment of intoxication." — Rev. H. Ware, Unitarian. 

Such are the comparisons, epithets, and assertions 
by which leading men of various professions, and various 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 213 

religious denominations have expressed their views of 
this traffic. One or two of them have done more, as you 
perceive, than call it immoral. They have shown where- 
in the immorality consists. Yes, they have asserted the 
very doctrine of this discourse. And now to the proof 
of that doctrine ; which is — that to use alcohol as an or- 
dinary drink is suicide ; to make, give, or sell it to be so 
used, is murder by the statutes of Heaven, and ought, in 
consistency, to be, by the laws of human governments. 
The validity of the proof depends upon the truth and 
justice of those principles, which we have found in the 
laws of civilized countries, and in the Bible. To them 
we must, therefore, refer. It has been stated that, in a 
case of murder, three things are inquired after. 1. Was 
the person killed] 2. Was it by an overt act of another 1 
3. Was it done with feelings of malice, revenge, or by an 
undervaluing of human life] And the feelings of the 
murderer determine whether it is murder in the first or 
second degree. Another inquiry may arise. Is he prin- 
cipal, or accessory % If he directly administered the 
poison, in the case of death by poison, he is principal. If 
he sold it to a second person, knowing that he meant to 
sell it to a third, to be used in a way that injured life ; 
then he is an accessory before the fact. And the only 
point further needed to prove our proposition, is — whether 
alcohol taken into the stomach is a poison. On this point, 
whenever there is any doubt in a court, they send for 
medical men. These are the witnesses, I shall presently 
subpoena, after you have listened for a few moments to 
the vender's pleas. I say nothing now about the suicidal 
guilt of drinking alcohol ; because it will be involved in 
the other principle, if that be established. 

Pleas of the alcohol-seller: 

1. If I should kill a man by arsenic, it would be mur- 
der ; but I sell alcohol. 

19* 



214 . SERMON IX. 

I grant, this plea will now acquit, you at the bar of an 
unenlightened conscience, of an uninformed public senti- 
ment, and in the criminal courts of human governments. 
But, from what part of God's statute will you draw the 
ground of such a plea % In which chapter is it written, — 
you shall not kill by arsenic, but you may by alcohol 1 
When inquisition is made for blood; when a precious 
human life has been destroyed j can that righteous law- 
giver admit such a distinction % 

2. But I deny that it is a poiso?i like arsenic. Then 
let us call in the medical men. We begin with Dr. Rush. 
He declared that it was a poison which brought on eigh- 
teen or twenty of the most painful, formidable, and fatal 
diseases. Go to all the books on Materia Medica. Look 
at the index, for the word alcohol, and you will be re- 
ferred to the class of narcotic vegetable poisons, and find 
it ranked for its effects on the human body with henbane, 
deadly night-shade, and hemlock ; and considered as ex- 
erting on the human frame an influence similar to the 
continued action of the plague, typhus fever, and small- 
pox. While they thus consider alcohol a poison, when 
taken into the stomach, they have traced its deadly 
march, and watched its effects on the vital organs. It is 
carried by the blood to every one, and each is deranged 
by its touch. They have extensively signed the declara- 
tion in this country and in Great Britain, that it is the 
constant source of disease and death. Many of them as- 
sure us that the Cholera gathers half its virulence from the 
poisonous effects of alcohol. "I have no doubt," says 
an eminent physician, " that one half the men who die of 
fevers every year might recover, had it not been for the 
use of spirituous liquor. No one but a physician knows 
how powerfully all inflammatory diseases are increased 
by even what is called temperate drinking ; or how fatally 
the best remedies in the world are counteracted by the 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 215 

same cause. I have seen men who were never intoxica- 
ted, prostrated twenty days with a fever, who, but for the 
use of ardent spirit, probably would not have been con- 
fined to the house for a day." Dr. Hosackhas remarked 
that one in ten of the Quakers lives to eighty years, 
while the average of human life is such that only one in 
forty lives to that age. This he traces to their total ab- 
stinence from the use of distilled liquors. Thus it is 
manifest that the use of ardent spirit takes an average of 
fourteen years from every human life. A physician in 
this State, from his own observation and accurate calcu- 
lation, ascertained the difference between the life of the 
sober and the drunken to be about thirty years. Can it 
then be overrating, when the number destroyed by alco- 
hol in the United States is computed to be 50,000 annu- 
ally 1 And can any vender of ardent spirit plead before 
an intelligent community, or at the bar of God — I am not 
selling poison 1 But he continues his apologies. 

3. You surely cannot call it murder, when a man may 
drink this poison for fifty years and not die. This plea we 
have anticipated, by showing that the length of time be- 
tween the act which caused death, and the death itself, 
does not alter its criminality, provided medical men will 
testify that the act caused the death. And although it 
may screen you at an earthly tribunal, it surely cannot at 
that bar where infinite justice presides. If some men do 
drink and live fifty years, others lose thirty years of life. 
These United States lose yearly from thirty thousand to 
fifty thousand lives by you and your colleagues in the 
work of death. Who is responsible for these if you are 
not % He replies again : 

4. I have no unkind or malicious feelings towards any 
of my customers. There is in history a famous case par- 
allel to this. When Jesus. of Nazareth stood before Pi- 
late, the Roman governor reverenced him j he was con- 



216 SERMON IX. 

vinced of his innocence ; he indulged none but the kind- 
est feelings towards him. And when at last he signed 
the death warrant, he took water before the people and 
washed his hands. Did he wash from his soul the stain 
of murder 1 I apprehend we shall give a unanimous ver- 
dict in that case. There is another : — Judas Iscariot 
seems never to have entertained any malice prepense to- 
wards his Master. And when he saw the unanticipated 
result of his treachery, he was so astounded and over- 
whelmed with a sense of guilt, that life was intolerable. 
Another case : — The highwayman who stoppe'd Rowland 
Hill in his carriage, had no malice, as is evident from the 
sequel ; and was even a tender hearted man, driven by the 
wants of his family to this desperate course. Suppose 
he had murdered Mr. Hill ; would he have been guilty 1 
If so ; then let us draw a parallel. The vender of alco- 
hol has no unkind feelings towards the victims who die 
beneath the scorching fires of the still. Neither had Pi- 
late, nor Judas, nor the highwayman in the cases alluded 
to. The vender only wants to obtain money. So did Judas 
and the highwayman. Pilate only wanted to save his credit. 
The vender would even be rejoiced to obtain his ends 
without the fatal results. For venders are men, possessed 
of conscience and sensibility. They can feel distressed 
at another's wo. And their business is to them a source 
of much distress whenever they do trace it to its results. 
It would, this hour, lighten up the corroding burden from 
ten thousand distressed minds in this country ; it would 
create a jubilee if it could be ascertained and proclaimed 
abroad that all which has been said about alcohol is false ; 
and should be contradicted by the same intelligent, up- 
right, competent, influential men who have expressed 
their views on this subject. So would Pilate have re- 
joiced to have saved his honour and his victim. So would 
Herod Antipas have delighted to save John the Baptist, 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 217 

and at the same time his credit with those who sat about 
him. Judas and the highwayman wanted only money, 
not the destruction of life. See then your common crim- 
inality, and the righteous principle on which you will to- 
gether be condemned — the principle which we have 
found in our statutes, and which will be found in the sta- 
tute books of Heaven. You, and Herod, and Pilate, and 
Judas, and the highwayman, cause death simply by caring 
more for your own honour or paltry gain, than for the life 
of a fellow being. Murder occasioned by recklessness of 
human life will be your crime, no matter what your 
feelings. 

Let us hear him again : 

5. If I do not sell, others will. Carry that plea before 
the bar of your fellow mortal. Tell him there are a great 
many murderers ; and if you did not commit murder, 
some one else will. Oh ! shame on the degeneracy of 
man ! degeneracy of heart and stupidity of understand- 
ing, that he can for one moment ease a labouring con- 
science with so shallow a plea. 

6. If respectable men leave it, bad men will take it up. 
Then the ministers of the gospel had better become man- 
agers of our theatres and keepers of gambling houses. 
Our governor had better take all the murdering and high- 
way robbing into his own hands, to have it done respect- 
ably, and to keep worse men from it. How much conso- 
lation it must administer to that wretched wife who sits 
shivering at midnight over the dying embers, to think 
that her husband is drinking at the store of a pious dea- 
con, who has prayed over his barrels and bottles and 
measures ! How it mitigates the horror and the guilt of 
his awful death, to reflect that it was done by a respecta- 
ble man ; and that he had a license from the civil author- 
ities to do it ! Oh ! mock not the bleeding heart with such 
an apology. Oh! venture not to the judgment seat with 



218 SERMON IX. 

such a plea ! To this it is replied, since the first deliv- 
ery of this discourse ; the law does not forbid the sale of 
ardent spirits, while it does forbid murder. This is an 
evasion, not an answer. We have not asserted that hu- 
man laws made this traffic murder, but that it is intrinsic- 
ally so ; and will be so construed by the law of God — and 
that your plea, that you wanted it done respectably, will 
appear infinitely foolish at the bar of God. 

Now, there is one plea which will be valid, if you can 
sustain it. It is — that you were necessarily ignorant of 
the nature and tendency of alcohol when used as an ordi- 
nary drink. You must not only be ignorant, but neces- 
sarily so. If mere ignorance were a sufficient excuse, 
then men have only to remain ignorant of what is right 
and what is wrong ; and every thing they do is innocent, 
however destructive of the interests and happiness of 
others. This excuse has been long ago swept away by 
every criminal court. And it is only when ignorance is 
unavoidable, that a person may do a wrong action with- 
out guilt. Let it then be understood, that whatever may 
have been the case in former days, the venders of alcohol 
can no longer plead necessary ignorance. For they may 
know the true nature and necessary effects of alcohol on 
the human system. It was often said ; why, very good 
men drank and sold ardent spirits ; were they all suicides 
and murderers] This a fair question, and should be 
fairly answered. The morality or immorality of any ac- 
tion is always the same in itself considered. Right and 
wrong are eternal and immutable distinctions. The mo- 
ment in which two intelligent beings exist, there also 
exist natural relations between them. And out of these 
spring, naturally and necessarily, duties and obligations ; 
and whenever to the natural are added artificial relations, 
out of these spring new duties and obligations. Every 
action they then perform is either right or wrong, con- 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 219 

formed or not conformed to a natural, eternal, unchange- 
able standard. This standard is not the result even of 
the Divine will, nor an object on which even Omnipo- 
tence can exert itself. Much less do right and wrong 
depend on the fickle opinions of men, on human legisla- 
tion, public sentiment, or the customs of society. The 
very holiness of God is conformity to this standard ; it 
is not first making a thing right, and then being con- 
formed. But God is holy in loving and choosing what is 
right. Every custom is then eternally right or wrong. 
That is — it was always wrong for men to be shortening 
their lives by drinking a poison ; just as wrong as it is 
now. It was always as wrong to capture the natives of 
Africa and sell them in a foreign country as it is now. 
It is no more really piracy, now that civilized nations 
have thus denominated it, than it was then. But the de- 
gree of personal guilt does depend on the degree of light 
which an individual may obtain who sincerely desires to 
know what is right and what is wrong. If the nature 
and essential effects of alcohol could not be known by 
our fathers as they are known by us, then they were not 
so guilty. No one can believe that it was any thing else 
than murder in an inhabitant of India to kill her child ; 
and yet no one can believe that she is as guilty as a mo- 
ther in Albany who should do the same thing. But should 
we confer a favour on these heathen mothers by permit- 
ting them to remain in darkness ; or is it philanthropy 
and duty to go and pour the light of God's eternal law 
upon their practices, and tell them distinctly, that it is mur- 
der] Will their civil and domestic condition be injured 
or improved by such a mission and such preaching 1 
Why, they reply, our mothers were many of them very 
good, and they did so. Were they guilty of murder 1 
The only true reply is, and must be — they committed 
murder, as they committed all the other crimes for which 



220 SERMON IX. 

God condemns them. But the degree of their guilt de- 
pended on the knowledge they could have that it was 
wrong. To return then from our digression, I repeat : 
to sell alcohol as a drink, is now murder in the sight of 
God, without any mitigation ; and that, for two reasons : 
because alcohol kills, and because they may know that to 
be its natural effect. Their ignorance, if they are igno- 
rant, is voluntary. They love the darkness more than the 
light, and they will not come to the light lest their deeds 
be reproved. Nor would I make so tremendous a charge 
against the traffickers without proof. You will not re- 
quire me to give an extended proof, that alcohol is a poi- 
son and an enemy of human life. I speak of that sub- 
stance which Segalas, an eminent French physiologist in- 
troduced into the vein of a dog, and he instantly dropped 
down dead. I speak of that substance, of which, if the 
speaker should drink that tumbler full, he would probably 
in ten minutes gasp in the agonies of death. You know 
the substance : it is poison — sheer, unnutritive, fiery poi- 
son. This is the first fact on which this awful charge is 
founded. The second is — that the distiller, the whole- 
sale merchant, the grocer, the tavern-keeper, may know 
its nature and effect. If that is true, O ! my fellow citi- 
zens, tremble. For he cometh, he cometh to the judg- 
ment. And when inquisition is made for blood, if you 
cannot fly behind this last refuge of involuntary igno- 
rance, your case is hopeless. Let us, then, see how the 
matter stands. Every drinker and vender of alcohol in 
this city may know that it kills — from two sources : 

1. From physicians, who declare that this is its natural 
and necessary effect, as truly as it is of fire to consume ; 
that it is no more adapted to do man good than henbane is. 
Now, suppose the man who dropped down and died just 
after leaving a grocery, had been last at yours. A coro- 
ner's jury pronounce it death caused by intoxication. You 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 221 

are arraigned for murder ; one of those physicians who has 
already pronounced alcohol a poison, is subpoenaed as a 
witness. He is ordered to examine the corpse. He comes 
into court and says — the death was manifestly caused by 
the alcohol he had just drank. The court then ask; is 
alcohol a poison 1 u It has always been so ranked by 
medical chemists. I have analyzed it, and I pronounce it 
a poison." Other witnesses are called in to show that 
you administered that poison. I ask then, on what princi- 
ple will an honest jury hesitate and refuse to pronounce 
you guilty ; when the court shall have instructed them 
that you might have known the nature of the article and 
its natural effects, from the immense number and variety 
of the publications, sermons and addresses which repeat 
the testimony of the physician 1 . From this city alone 
millions are issued every year. This is precisely one of 
that class of cases in which the testimony of the physi- 
cian turns the scale in the decisions of the jury, even 
where life and death are at issue. But these very men 
now tell you, you are dealing out poison. Will God then 
hold you guiltless, even if man approve your course ^ 
But there is still another source of knowledge, which 
leaves you yet more inexcusable : it is your own observa- 
tion, confirmed by that of men of every class. Not as in 
the former case, the tracing internally its fiery track over 
one tissue of the body after another, and from one chan- 
nel of life to another ; but its visible, external effects ; 
effects so manifest, that any child eight years old can trace 
them to their cause ; effects to which you can get testi- 
mony until no house could hold the statements which 
might be written. Ask your little child, as he sees your 
neighbour, a stout, strong man, reeling out of your store, 
what ails that man % "Why, father, he is drunk ; you 
gave him something from that decanter, and that makes 
him stagger so." Never were cause and effect more mani- 

20 



222 SERMON IX. 

festly connected. Its first visible influence is on the mus- 
cles. And if the man were a giant, this serpent would 
coil around him, and wrap his iron sinews in its fiery em- 
brace until, from very infantile weakness, his head is too 
heavy for the muscles of the neck, the hands are too 
weighty for the muscles of the arm, the body too heavy 
for the knees ; they bend, and reel and stagger, until he 
presses just as closely to the earth, as a log. This is 
but the beginning of the work of death. I hope I shall 
not exaggerate in any thing. In a case where the truth 
is so awful, it would be both foolish and sinful to state 
any thing but facts to produce the deepest impression. 
The next thing you cannot fail to observe is, that the 
brain is strongly and injuriously affected. The brain is 
the most delicate and mysterious part of the human body : 
its state may generally be known by the state of the mind. 
Look then at the attack you have made on this vital organ. 
If your customer had been Demosthenes, whose eloquence, 
one hour before, had made a continent tremble ; look at 
him as your poison begins to seize the brain. See his 
drivelling j mark his eye. — Its lightning flash is gone. 
Hear his speech 5 blasphemous, obscene, idiotic ! O ! where 
is his mind 1 Ask not — the poison of Arabia is maddening 
his brain. But I cannot now follow the history of those 
signals which nature, tortured, scorched and maddened in 
every vital organ, successively holds out. The eye, the 
colour of the face, its muscles, the nose, the trembling 
hand, plead eloquently that you would stop your victori- 
ous attack on every citadel of life. The loss of appetite, 
indigestion soon proclaims that another vital organ, the 
liver, is yielding to the universal conqueror whom you 
have sent towage this unrelenting warfare. Our city 
and New-York taught us some impressive lessons on this 
subject, during the prevalence of the cholera. One in 
sixty of our alcohol drinking population died ; while only 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 223 

one in twenty-five hundred of the members of our tempe- 
rance societies died by it. In New- York, it is said, that 
of the six hundred taken to Park Hospital, scarcely any 
died who had drank no ardent spirit for two years. It 
was remarked by an intelligent observer, that if it had not 
been for the sale and use of ardent spirit, there would not 
have been cholera enough to suspend business for a sin- 
gle day. Did you ever see a case of delirium tremens 1 — 
Did you not think alcohol was a poison 1 Did you hear 
the scream, the maniac scream — did you see the poor 
wretch trying to drive away the devils with which his 
distracted fancy was filling the air — did you see him try to 
wipe off the filthy snakes which he saw crawling all over 
his body 1 Did you not think alcochol was a poison 1 In 
the year 1833, Mr. Hogan tells us, that in our jail alone, 
from the rum sold in this city, there were at least one 
hundred cases of delirium tremens. The only death 
there in the year, was that of a woman by this horrid dis- 
ease. It has been observed by our judges, police magis- 
trates and jailers, that scarcely a case of murder occurs 
in this country, but under the influence of alcohol. You 
probably read the account of that father, who after spend- 
ing the evening in a scene of grovelling dissipation and 
frantic riot, was transformed into an infuriated demon ; 
went home ; found his wife and children in bed ; took 
the axe and knocked them all in the head, like so many 
brutes, then cut his own throat, and madly hurried to tell his 
Judge, that for a paltry pittance, his neighbour gave him 
the bowl of madness j it turned his brain, and he rushed 
to murder, to death, to hell. Do I exaggerate \ God 
forbid. Only go to the files of newspapers in our city for 
ten years, and if you cannot learn that alcohol is a poison ; 
then you must either plead idiocy, or stand convicted of 
voluntary ignorance. — Where would you find alcohol if 
he were a real person \ Is there a scene of rioting, pro- 



224 SE3M0N IX. 

faneness, debauchery — is there a place of sinful amuse- 
ment, a place where the mind is exhibited in its utmost 
depravity, in which its influence is not predominant 1 Is 
there a hovel of wretchedness and want, in which you 
may not point to the badges of misery : and say, these 
are the natural fruits of this tree 1 It poisons the mind as 
well as the body. The horrid murders recently commit- 
ted on the Baltimore rail-road can be traced entirely to the 
influence of the whiskey drank by the labourers in im- 
mense quantities. After the labourers there became ac- 
customed to the frequent use of it from the hands of the 
contractors, they became indolent, and at pay-day were cut 
down in their wages. They vowed revenge, and such a 
scene of turbulence and blood as was enacted on the Bal- 
timore and Washington rail-road, has been seldom seen in 
this country. The terrified inhabitants were seen flying 
from their houses in utter dismay. And it seems as if God 
permitted this occurrence to punish those contractors, and 
lift the light so high and glaring on this point, that none 
could any longer sin ignorantly. Alcohol is poison. No 
fact in human science is established by evidence of a more 
certain kind, and of greater variety, than this — that alco- 
hol is a poison. Its general properties and its hidden ef- 
fects on the body are attested by hundreds of scientific 
men. Its external, obvious effects, are attested by the 
senses of millions. These effects are not rare and occa- 
sional, but regular and necessary. The drunkard's woes 
and premature death are entirely unnatural, and the direct 
and legitimate result of drinking a poison. Where is 
then the ground of an apology to any one in this coun- 
try who has eyes or ears — that he was ignorant of the 
nature and effects of ardent spirit 1 We see none. Let 
us then repeat the doctrine of our discourse. 

To use alcohol as an ordinary drink, is suicide. To 
make, give, or sell it to be so used, is murder, by 



INTOXICATING LIQtTORS. 225 

Heaven's law, even if that law be interpreted by the prin- 
ciples adopted in human legislation. 

But the crime of the spirit vender has yet another 
aggravation. It not only is murder, but is, in all its bear- 
ings, the most cruel form of murder ever yet devised by 
Satanic cunning and malice. It is different from any 
form of murder which highwaymen or pirates ever adopt. 
Contrast a death by alcohol with one caused by a pistol- 
shot. 

Mark— 

1. The protracted bodily suffering. You boast that 
your customers live a great while. Yes, but how do they 
live 1 Hours, months, years of protracted disease first 
preying on one delicate fibre, and then on another. Who 
hath woes! The drinker of your slow poison, 

A pistol-shot drives through the heart, and one or two 
convulsive struggles finish the sufferings of earth. 

2. There are protracted shame, fear, convictions, and 
struggles. You say, u my customers are free agents. I 
do not force them to drink." Yes, they are free, and that 
makes your species of murder so cruel. Give it to a 
swine, and he is not called to render account for the sin of 
drunkenness, or any crimes resulting from it. But you 
give it to a man : a free accountable being. His relations 
to God and to society are various and complicated. He 
is a subject of God's moral government, an object of re- 
deeming mercy's tenderest regard. He is a son, brother, 
citizen, friend, father. Every glass you hand out, vibrates 
along the most delicate chord, jars in harsh discord amid 
some of the sweetest music of life, disturbs its most im- 
portant harmonies, and runs in its influence farther in 
extent and duration, than you have yet conceived. If 
a robber had pierced a man through with a sword, he 
might be for weeks writhing in bodily pain j but his mind 

20* 



226 SERMON IX 

would not be agonized with shame. He is willing his 
friends should come and see him. The victims of your 
cruelty, all the way down through the long, slow process 
of death, lose the cheerful openness of virtue. They 
burn with shame as with an inward fire. The society of 
the good used to make them happy ; but now it renders 
them wretched. The gradual loss of character comes in 
the detail, like the daily sting of a scorpion. Where the 
smile of approbation and the salutation of respect were 
once received; the cold indifference of neglect, or the 
more rough-edged sneer of contempt cuts across every 
sensibility of the man whom you are so slowly murdering. 
I have spoken of the drunkard's fears. They are peculiar 
to himself, the peculiar product of your slow poison. I 
know his first launch is into the outer circle of the mael- 
strom. The day smiles sweetly, the waters play harm- 
lessly around his little bark. It is easy floating. It re- 
quires no oar, no helm. There is motion without effort 
or care. The circle sweeps with so large a diameter, it 
seems like a straight line. But ah, the delusion ! It is 
the curve of death. Each successive sweep is swifter 
and in a diminished circle. But at first it lulls to a sweet 
feeling of security. This generally continues until it is 
too late to put back the frail bark, and as it drives over 
the first inward declivities on the edge of the awful tun- 
nel ; then begin to break upon the ear a terrific roar of 
the mighty waters rushing through their subterranean 
outlet. Can you tell, dealer in poison; can you tell what 
images of terror, what unearthly sounds of horror are 
racking the soul of your customer while you are quietly 
resting on your pillow 1 Remember, it is the angelic na- 
ture of man rushing to ruin. ! these are, these must 
be terrors that baffle description. Remember, as he looks 
down the yawning abyss, and hears without the roaring of 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 227 

a thousand thunders ; within he is goaded with the last 
appeals of a guilt-oppressed conscience. It will not suf- 
fer the suicidal plunge until it has once more asserted 
the rights of God, and told the terrors of a coming judg- 
ment. Remember, that thirty thousand every year are 
swallowed in this vortex. See how thickly they cover 
the dark waters. See the security and hilarity of the 
nearest circle. Hear the blasphemies and babblings that 
arise above the roar of waves. But ! look on the inner 
circles. See the sons of promise there. See how richly 
some of their barks are freighted with the happiness of 
others. Mark how they are now starting from their 
dreams. Listen to the cry of despair ; mark the fitful, 
convulsive, unavailing struggles as they try to press from 
destruction. ! the struggles, the deadly struggles of 
a man who feels himself really becoming a drunkard, and 
that in view of all it involves. Venders and makers of 
alcohol, you murder slowly. So do the North American 
savages. They do not aim to secure death alone. They 
lengthen life, where instant death would be mercy. They 
put off the day and hour of actual death, to fill up the in- 
terval with torments. You do the same, not intentionally, 
but as actually and as fatally to the wretched victims as 
if it were so. 

And again, — 

3. It sends men to a certain and eternal hell. If infi- 
delity says, that is harsh and presumptuous ; I place my 
feet on the pedestal of truth, the word of God. " No 
drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God." Alcohol, I 
say, from the Bible, fits men for hell, slowly, but surely, 
and then leaves it not to any other agent, but carries 
them to the verge of the precipice, and, to crown all its 
career of cruelty and murder, plunges them into a burn- 
ing eternal damnation. I mean, the alcohol vender does. 
And between this fact and sheer infidelity, there is no 



228 SERMON IX. 

middle ground of belief. You may close your eyes and 
ears against it ; but it is true as the word of God. 

But this species of murder has yet a wider reach of 
cruelty. Other kinds may distress a large circle of re- 
spectable friends. But they strike one painful blow and 
leave the soothing hand of time to heal the wound. This 
lashes and pierces with scorpion sting, for months and 
years, and adds continually another and a keener point 
to keep innocent hearts bleeding. I allude to the painful 
and protracted anxiety of friends, when the doubtful point 
begins to be agitated — "is he becoming a drunkard V 
None but they who feel it, can tell how that agitation 
turns every sweet fountain of earthly enjoyment into 
wormwood and gall. I allude to the anxiety which is 
started again in their minds when one experiment after 
another is ingeniously made to keep the self-destroyer 
from the place of murder and the allurements of the alco- 
hol vender. For it is upon your place of traffic that they 
now look with as much horror as you would upon the 
spot where the wife of your bosom was murdered. Dec- 
orate them as you please. These are the associations 
with which the place of your daily business is connected 
in the minds of those who love your customers. I might 
charge you still farther in summing up before a jury com- 
posed of the comon sentiments of justice and humanity. 
The disgrace of numerous friends, the wretchedness of 
unpitied, unrelieved poverty — the destruction of kindly 
feelings, all mark the success of your business. Under 
your influence, the father loses the character of counsel- 
lor, supporter, companion, patriarch, priest, and becomes 
the tormentor, the burden, the curse of those he has 
sworn to love and bless. He exerts but one kind of influ- 
ence steadily on his children ; and that is, to train them 
to sin and misery. 

But I stop. The detail need be carried no farther. If 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 229 

the traffic in alcohol is murder, and that of the most cruel 
kind ,• we may and ought to inquire, Who will be found 
to partake of its guilt, remotely or directly 1 
Who is guilty ? 
If the temperance societies should at once perfectly 
accomplish the object of their efforts ; there would be 
saved to this nation, millions of dollars annually — thirty 
thousand lives would be saved and added to the strength 
and the happiness of this nation ; and wretchedness whose 
amount cannot be measured, would be prevented. If they 
entirely fail during this year ; then the river of burning 
lava will roll on its fiery course. On its scorching bosom 
will still be seen writhing in protracted agonies, three 
hundred thousand human beings made for holiness and 
happiness. Thirty or forty thousand will plunge into 
endless misery this year ; and increase in the next. And 
as these murdered souls rise to the bar of God ; he will 
make inquisition for blood. On whose hands will it be 
found 1 Kemember the principle of criminal law taken 
from the law of God. If an ox was known to be danger- 
ous, and by being turned loose, destroyed life ; the 
owner so exposing the life of others, was made to answer 
for it with his own. Let us go then to the fountain-head. 
Whence flows the river of death 1 Does it come like the 
beautiful Hudson, from fountains which God has made 1 
No j the little rivulets which swell its tide, are made 
by man. God never made a distillery. And he never 
made alcohol, but in the process of vegetable destruction. 
It is the product of the process of fermentation. It is 
found naturally in the vessels of no living, healthful plant 
or animal. And when artificially introduced there ; it 
proves its origin. Begotten by the process of death, it 
tends directly and powerfully to death. Why do not the 
owners of distilleries close them! Beeause the love of 
money is stronger in them than shame, humanity, or con- 



230 SERMON IX. 

science. Yea, they will grasp it, though they know it to 
be the price of tears and blood, though it be wrung from 
the hard earnings of the poor, and is the last dependence 
of a famishing family ; provided it comes to them through 
second hands, and they see not the misery they cause. 
Let us go along this river of death, and see the various 
agencies which have a guilty connexion with it. 

1. The Distiller, Importer, and Vender. They keep 
this fountain full, and open the channels through which 
it may flow. Every maker and vender must admit that 
drunkenness is a horrible evil. But how much drunken- 
ness is there throughout these states 1 A gentleman in 
this state, has caused a thorough investigation to be made 
lately in three counties in a section of this state, which 
ranks high for morality. With a population of about 
49,000, there are upwards of 21,000 who drink, " moder- 
ately," and about i900 drunkards ; i. e., nearly one half 
are tipplers or occasional drinkers, and one in 26 is a 
drunkard. Apply that proportion to the whole Union, 
and we have 500,000 drunkards. Is this vice horrible in 
one man — what is it when accumulated and multiplied in 
half a million 1 And who perpetrates this guilt and 
wretchedness'? Could it exist if you would all abandon 
your business, and other men have too much humanity 
and conscience to enter it 1 But the maker replies : " I 
do not force any one to drink ; I make it, and if men 
choose to kill themselves with it, I am no more responsi- 
ble than if I manufactured corrosive sublimate, and men 
chose to drink it." Here I believe is, at last, the most 
satisfactory reasoning to the manufacturer's mind. But 
it is only one of the specimens of sophistry by which men 
quiet a disturbed conscience, without doing themselves 
the justice to reflect upon it soberly as in the sight of 
their final Judge. They make alcohol as a beverage: 
they make it knowing that it will be drank, and knowing 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 231 

that the appetite for it is the life of their business. They 
make it to be drank, just as truly as ever men make pis- 
tols for the destruction of life, or counterfeit money for 
circulation. If they make it for the arts j why not make 
it in the form of pure alcohol, in which it is needed in 
the arts ; why colour it for the eye and drug it for the 
taste 1 The plea is insincere. If there be in the manu- 
facturer's heart a prayer, which never was framed into 
words, it is, " let men get an increasing appetite for ardent 
spirits ; this I desire just as earnestly as I desire the com- 
fort and respectability of myself and family." And he 
doubtless often feels secure, because he sells to venders 
and not to drinkers. Just as secure is he from the pierc- 
ing eye of Justice, and from her dreadful sentence, as is 
the maker of counterfeit money. He never cheats any 
person. He sells to men who know the nature of the 
article. If they choose to injure the community, he, 
poor innocent man, cannot help it. He is merely making 
an honest livelihood by selling printed paper, which is 
one of God's good creatures. This apology has often 
satisfied the wholesale vender. But the difference is ; 
you deal out death by the hogshead, your neighbour by 
the gill. Your beams are laid in blood three stories high, 
his but one. The apology of the retailer we have suffi- 
ciently examined. We see then a flood of burning lava 
rolling down over a lovely country, laying every thing 
waste before it. The distillery is the volcano, tended by 
the respectable distiller. The wholesale vender digs the 
larger channels, and the retailer carries it home over the 
lovely little garden spots where bloomed the sweetest 
plants of domestic happiness, and into the sanctuary of 
the living God, and around the very altars devoted to ho- 
liness. Yea, they have carried it up into the sacred desk ; 
and even there, the mighty have fallen. Who furnished 
it to the man, who, in this ward, last year, knocked ano- 



232 SERMON IX. 

ther in the head and killed him 1 Who furnished it to the 
Captain of the Rothsay Castle, when he madly drove his 
steam-boat on the shoals, and destroyed two hundred pre- 
cious lives 1 " Oh !" exclaimed a man who had made 
much money in the traffic ; as he looked around from his 
store upon the once thrifty farmers, who had been brought 
to ruin by trading with him ; " Oh ! it is a horrible busi- 
ness." I stand and look at a distillery ; at the hogshead 
rolling into a wholesale store ; at the barrel, the jug 
taken in by the retailer. I ask the physician : what is 
the nature of that substance, and its effects if men drink 
it 1 I ask the police magistrate, the judge, the man of 
observation, the wife. One clear loud voice answers \ 
poison — poison — the deadliest, cruellest poison. It kills 
both body and soul, and creates all around it an atmos- 
phere of death. Look at that decorated bar-room. Its 
gilding is the mask of the assassin. Look at that smiling 
bar-tender. Can he be so ignorant as not to know what 
a train of evils he is setting in motion'? Has he not read 
nor observed 1 He has laughed at the temperance so- 
ciety. Has he prepared to answer his final Judge 1 

Do I address a manufacturer or vender to-night 1 Have 
I invaded your rights 1 Oh no, you are the invader. And 
this is but a feeble attempt to throw a wall of defence 
around the rights and happiness of community. Do I 
appear to you harsh % No. It cannot be ; for it is not 
in my heart. Believing fully the doctrine of this discourse, 
I must feel moral disapprobation. But with it I feel a«xi- 
ety and distress in prospect of your final account and 
retribution. Facts are stubborn things. And I am stating 
but a few of an innumerable class, and those in a manner 
too feeble fully to exhibit the wrong you are doing, and 
the miseries you are inflicting. The poor unfortunate 
wretch who bought your spirits, and committed murder 
under their influence, lies in prison, waiting the day of 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. . 233 

execution. But you are upheld and shielded by the law 
to make more murderers. Oh ! that day — that dreadful 
day, when even-handed justice will apportion differently 
from the awardings of imperfect man. There remain for 
you but two alternatives. Go on and meet your Judge. 
We will use no other force against you than persuasion. 
Resist that — die a rum-vender, and meet your customers 
at the bar of God. Or, repent and renounce your sin ; 
make all the reparation to God and man in your power-, 
and apply to the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ for 
forgiveness. 

Another class share in this guilt. 

2. Those who license the traffic. It is, surely, but a plain 
inference of common sense, that licensing this traffic in 
the present state of things, is licensing all the crime 
which results from it. In other words, our municipal of- 
ficers and commissioners of excise license men to com- 
mit murder by poison ; to dishonour God and destroy 
man. What is the effect on the vender of every license, 
you dispense 1 It shields his conscience from the per- 
ception of his guilt. It stands in the way of that holy, 
searching, murder-forbidding law of God, which would 
drive him to despair or repentance. Rum-venders want 
generally no better shield against the law of God, than 
the license which they have received from a civil officer, 
and for which they have paid. It prevents public senti- 
ment, however powerful, from reaching them. Why, 
they say, " these are fanatics, that would interfere with 
our lawful business." Yes, you make it lawful for them 
to continue and multiply the murderous traffic. The li- 
cense stands right in the way of one of the noblest re- 
formations of the age ; one which, most deeply of all, 
involves the best interests of our country. Would you 
believe you were doing right, even if appointed by the 
governor to do it, to license piracy, counterfeiting, mur- 

21 



234 SERMON IX. 

der by arsenic 1 If not, where is the moral right of licens- 
ing murder by alcohol ! " Thou shalt not kill," neither 
as principal nor as accessory. You say, I am appointed 
to execute the law. This is an invalid excuse ; because 
you ought not to accept an office which requires you to 
do a moral wrong. But the law does not require you to 
license a single individual. The law restrains you from 
doing it, unless you have evidence that the public good 
demands it in every individual case. If the licensing 
officer is under oath, and if he is required to obtain under 
oath, the declaration that the public good demands every 
rum-selling establishment which is licensed ; then I fear- 
lessly assert that there is not only murder, but what God 
will consider perjury somewhere ; when in a city like 
Albany, in every twelfth house rum is sold for the public 
good. Is the multitude of rookeries in our city, which 
contain a jug, bottle, and glass ; and do nothing but sell 
rum, really licensed by men who have sworn only to con- 
sult the public accommodation in such licenses % Did I 
believe our licensing officers were ignorant, I would ap- 
peal on a different ground. But they are not. They are 
men of sense and observation. And I am unable to ac- 
count for their conduct in this matter, but by supposing 
they dare not offend the many who are interested in the 
traffic. And if this be really so, I exhort them as honest 
men to resign their office. I say, as honest men. The 
public appoint them as guardians of the public welfare. 
But when a strong band of murderers rises up and threat- 
ens vengeance, they dare not meet them. Give us com- 
manders that dare defend us. I would no more dare to 
license a man to sell ardent spirit in this city, than I 
would dare to be an accessory in any other way, to every 
crime committed under its influence. Those who do it, 
with their present light, violate the sixth commandment. 
Intimately connected with this, is the guilt of— 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 235 

3. Legislators. Perhaps it is not out of our province, 
now to remind this respected class of our citizens, that 
their station gives the man influence, for the uses and 
practical results of which, God holds them responsible. 
They must pass another and purer ordeal than public sen- 
timent. We have no complaint to make of past legisla- 
tion on this subject. It was manifestly designed for the 
public good ; and has already outrun public sentiment. 
On the licensing officers rests the heaviest portion of this 
guilt. Men of very bad character are engaged in the 
traffic, contrary to law. Minors and apprentices are per- 
mitted to buy and drink without the consent of guardians, 
contrary to law. 

Bad conduct is permitted in these drinking places, 
notwithstanding the law has required recognisance and 
securities for keeping an orderly house. This the legis- 
lator has honestly tried to prevent. He has tried to pre- 
vent the common tippling in groceries, by requiring the 
vender to swear that he keeps a tavern expressly for the 
accommodation of travellers. Nor should it be forgotten, 
that the existing laws were made in days of such dark- 
ness, that the best men did not hesitate to engage in the 
traffic. But a day of light has come. Tt is not boasting 
to say it — we have light on this subject which imposes 
new duties on all classes. It is chemical light, physiolo- 
gical light, moral light. By its clear shining, we are en- 
abled to see one portion of the community preying upon 
the wealth, and health, and life of the other. We now 
see the injustice of raising a revenue from a business 
which makes the non-vending part of community pay in 
the form of street begging, poor and criminal tax, more 
than twice the revenue without any pecuniary profit, but 
with incalculable moral loss. We now see that in the 
very requirement of recognisances for good conduct, 
lies the admission of such a natural fraternity between 



236 SERMON IX. 

the traffic and bad conduct, that they must require of him 
what is required of no other merchant, that he does not, 
in the pursuit of his lawful business, allow that unlawful 
conduct which directly results from it. We see by the 
light of this day, that legislation of a more decisive char- 
acter is required. It is, to make the traffic a crime by 
law. 

And why can they not make the traffic in certain spe- 
cified forms of alcohol to be drank on the premises a 
penal offence 1 Because, it is said, so many respectable 
men would consider it an unconstitutional abridgment 
of their privileges of drinking in taverns and stores, that it 
would be intolerably offensive to one part, and cunningly 
evaded by the other. If this reasoning be valid, a Legis- 
lature had better never use any portion of its influence 
to put down crime. If rum-selling be a crime ; (and upon 
the truth of that position is based all the legitimacy of 
my conclusions and the propriety of my appeals j) then 
the legislators as the constituted moral barrier between 
the state, and those destructive vices which lay desolate 
its social blessings, are bound to lay their strongest hand 
on this crime. And so long as they do not, they are, in 
the eye of pure morality, accessories to the murders 
and other crimes involved essentially in the traffic. 
Where is the moral difference between such a course and 
the suppression of lotteries 1 They were once protected 
by law. But by the same power you have crushed them, 
and they can now live only by skulking and hanging out 
false signs. Look at your power. Stretch out your 
wand over the land like Moses, and the plague will be 
stayed j the fountains of blood dried up. 

In view of these truths, let me ask, what is the duty of 
the Church ? Where should she be found on this subject 1 
Her place is in the fore-front of every moral reformation. 
Neither indolence nor cowardice befits her high vocation. 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 237 

The temperance reformation is a holy enterprise. It was 
commenced under the influence of the Bible, and its holy 
philanthropy, after the world had abandoned the hope of 
reform. It began in the Church. Devoted men of God 
gave it the first impulse. They discovered the grandest 
principle which ever rewarded the toil of philosophers — 
that total abstinence would rid the world of its direst 
curse ; its deadliest plague, whose ravages were yearly 
widening. It was begun in prayer, and I have been sur- 
prised that Christians could doubt the propriety of pray- 
ing in the public meetings connected with this subject. 
Cease to associate prayer with it, let it swing off to the 
low grounds of expediency and political economy, and the 
cause inevitably runs down. We owe all our success to 
the smiles of God. Let the Church still and perpetually 
seek their continuance. The Church is bound by all her 
vows and professions, by her covenant obligations, by her 
duty to man and to the cause of virtue, to sustain every 
society which seeks to reform community by proper 
means. There are several ways by which she may act 
in her appropriate sphere in accomplishing this work. 

1* By preaching. It is the duty of her ministers to 
exhibit this subject in the light of the Bible and eternity. 
If it involved a mere question of political economy, af- 
fecting the national industry and wealth ; if it is a merely 
medical question of the healthfulness or unhealthfulness 
of a certain substance, then it comes not specifically 
within the scope of the gospel preacher. But if the traf- 
fic in intoxicating liquors, and their use as a beverage, is 
a sin, and an enormous sin ; if the souls of men are des- 
troyed by this traffic ; if its success and extension is the 
overthrow of religion ; if the millennium cannot come 
while it flourishes ; then must the ministers of Christ 
sound the notes of alarm. They must give a clear and 
solemn exhibition of the guilt and the everlasting conse- 

21* 



238 SERMON IX, 

quences connected with these practices. In fact, I see 
not how we may expect the discontinuance of a traffic in 
which so many are interested, unless the public mind is 
led to contemplate it strongly in its everlasting conse- 
quences to drinkers and venders. I know we often hear 
remarks about going too fast for public sentiment. And 
I would, that there were as much time as we have now 
occupied to discuss that point in this connexion. There 
is a plausible, extensive and mischief-working error con- 
cerning it. I would ask this question. Should ministers 
in preaching, follow public sentiment, keep pace with it, or 
lead and reform it 1 If a minister tells the people what 
they knew before, he may refresh their memories ; but he 
cannot instruct them as a scribe who brings forth " things 
new and old." If he tells the people, those things are 
wrong, which they knew to be wrong before he told 
them ; he will not offend them indeed, nor incur the 
charge of fanaticism. But will he do them any good ? 
If public sentiment is ignorant, who is to enlighten it 1 
If it is wrong, who is to rectify it 1 Is it not the very 
business of the prophets of the Lord, the teachers of 
morality and religion 1 Must they not show the people, 
that many things which they received from their fathers, 
and which are now fashionable and much admired, are 
nevertheless wicked 1 Or must they always wait until the 
people find out from some other source what is right, 
and what wrong'? So did not Enoch, nor Lot, nor Jere- 
miah, nor John, nor our Redeemer. Public sentiment 
was altogether wrong on many important points in mor- 
alg ; yes, and it was defended on those very points by 
reference to the Bible, but our Saviour plainly instructed 
and solemnly rebuked them. To be sure, it did not 
much increase his popularity. Nor can it, in the nature 
oi the case. To oppose what is popular, must be unpop- 
ular. But his satisfaction was found in purifying the 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 239 

moral atmosphere, and in saving millions then unborn 
from error, sin, and eternal ruin. If these principles be 
correct, we shall benefit you and the cause of temper- 
ance but little, if our discourses, snail-paced and cow- 
ardly, creep up only as high as public sentiment has 
reached. It is our duty to gaze into eternity, and borrow 
the light of that day, when the pleadings of custom and 
appetite and interest will not be heard ; but truth — clear, 
simple, eternal truth — will try every man's work and char- 
acter, and fix his destiny. And if any reproaches must 
come on any class of men for advocating truth, let the 
leaders receive the first charge. 

The Church must sustain it by — 

2. Her practice. Theory, however correct, will not 
move the world, if those who advocate it contradict it by 
their practice. If the traffic is murder, how can Church 
members continue to buy and sell it 1 I only ask the 
conscience of the Church, and the common sense of the 
world. If the Church is the light of the world, what 
kind of light does that member hold out who sells alco- 
hoH The light of an ignis fatuus, it shines to decoy and 
destroy. The point is settled, that so long as religion is 
respected, the world will not rise above the Church in 
morals. One professor of religion, who is consistent in 
other respects, by continuing to vend this poison, may 
quiet the conscience and harden the heart of fifty others 
in a city like this, and be an effectual shield to guard 
them from the truth. "Be not partaker of other men's 
sins." The Church is bound — 

3. To purify herself. Is it a murderous traffic ; or is 
it immoral even on any other ground 1 then how can any 
Christian Church admit to its bosom and welcome as a 
faithful, obedient disciple of Jesus Christ, one who con- 
tinues in it ^ As a pastor, I could not welcome to our 
communion and Christian fellowship such a person. 



240 SERMON IX. 

This has been viewed as very high and untenable ground. 
I cannot see one inch below it, a footing for consistency ; 
I shall be thankful if it be there, to find it. If there be a 
vender in the bosom of your Church, labour with him in 
love, pray for him, weep over him j but ! leave him not 
until he has abandoned the cruel, guilty traffic. If he 
does not, see where he will stand in the judgment day. 
Jesus Christ will arraign a poor trembling culprit, and say 
to him, "I was sick and in prison and hungry; and your 
crime is, that you neither visited nor fed me." Lord, 
whenl he inquires. "In that poor creature, and that. 
Depart therefore accursed, into everlasting fire." Then 
he will turn to this vender, and say, " Come, blessed of 
my Father ; for I was sick and you visited, hungry and 
you fed me." When % he inquires. Jesus points to the 
same as before. What will the condemned wretch think 
of justice, when he recognises in those very beings those 
whom this Church member had made drunkards ; whose 
drunkenness caused their sickness, imprisonment, and 
hunger 1 The crime of one was, he had not attended to 
them after they were sick and hungry. But the virtue of 
the other was, that he not only had not regarded their 
wretchedness after it existed ; but he was the grand, vol- 
untary, selfish author of it all, in the midst of light and 
rebukes. ! tell it not in Gath, that such are the hopes 
of Christians ! 

Vender of alcohol — go home, and write upon every 
vessel containing this substance, " Thou shalt not kill." 
And may the finger of God write on your heart — " No 
murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 241 



SERMON X 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 



" / have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk 
in truth" — 3 John 4. 

John was a venerable Christian Pastor ; and when we 
use his language as expressive of our feelings, we do it 
with an humbling consciousness of unworthiness. Yet I 
think I can adopt this language with much sincerity, con- 
cerning a church over which I have watched, and wept, 
and prayed. The end of a pastor's labours and desires is, 
to lead his flock to walk in the truth. Desiring to con- 
dense my ministry, as it were, into one closing discourse, 
I adopt this sentence, with the hope that it will be brought 
afresh to your memory, whenever you think of me, — 
11 1 have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk 
in truth." 

TO WALK IN TRUTH. 

It is a beautiful idea. Pilate once asked, " What is 
truth V Had he waited for an answer, he might have 
heard it sublimely said, " I am Truth !" O ! had he for a 
moment laid aside the judge and become the child, his 
dark and wandering soul might have seen the dawning of 
a new and eternal day. What is truth 1 Things as they 
are, things as God apprehends them, facts, eternal reali- 
ties. — Where is truth 1 It used to be written all over the 
heavens. The earth was a rich volume, inscribed with 
truth on its ever varying pages. The heart of man was 
instinct with truth. But the heavens are now covered 



242 SERMON X. 

with sackcloth. The eye of love no longer reads the 
mystic characters written on every wonderful and beau- 
tiful object. The heart of man is perverted. He has 
come to hate the light and the truth. His philosophy, 
which can do nothing more than classify known facts, 
and conjecture unknown existence, can never teach him. 
God must teach him in plain, unequivocal language. God 
must teach him authoritatively 5 because the truth is often 
unwelcome. God must identify his instructions with 
signs and wonders. Once this was not necessary. Then 
the heart of man was true to the voice of God. It then 
needed no stupendous miracle to say to man — this is 
your Father and your God: hear him. But now the 
message must come from him, accompanied by strong 
and indisputable credentials. Where is truth 1 In Jesus — 
" I am the way, and the truth, and the life." It is in Jesus 
and his word. "Art thou a king thenl" asked Pilate. 
" To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into 
the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. 1 '' 
" No man hath seen God," said this great witness, " at 
any time ;" no philosopher, no son of science, no student 
of the stars, no deep observer of man. These have 
boasted of light, but they have groped in darkness. They 
have not seen God. His character, and his government, 
and his purposes, they have not discovered. ! my 
children, if I were leaving you to the cold instructions of 
philosophy and science, my heart would sink within me. 
I should not expect to meet you forgiven, sanctified, glo- 
rified, in the land of spirits. But ye have heard the voice 
of the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the 
Father. And his word is quick and powerful. You have 
heard it in your grave of sin ; it has quickened you into 
life spiritual, and will raise you by a second resurrection, 
to life eternal. 

Let me explain the text. John, was the honoured in- 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 243 

strument of converting many from the error of their ways. 
He thus became their spiritual instructer. In this rela- 
tion, he uses the language of these epistles, and calls 
them children ; some of them, perhaps, his seniors in 
age. There were two classes of error to which he saw 
them exposed — the errors of religion and those of irreli- 
gion ; the one consisting in the perversions of the Scrip- 
tures, and the other in an utter disregard of them as un- 
true or unimportant. The world has its errors, and the 
Church has hers. The holy and benevolent anxiety of 
this patriarch was, that his children should shun them 
both, and walk in the truth j that their minds should be 
enlightened, their hearts animated, and their steps di- 
rected by the truth. In his absence, in his banishment, 
nothing could cheer his heart but to hear this concern- 
ing them. They must walk in truth. Is the Bible un- 
kindly severe ; is it unjust, and does it aim to make us 
unsocial, when it says, the whole world lieth in wicked- 
ness ; — the friendship of the world is enmity with God 1 — 
meaning by the world, the unconverted. Is it unkind 
and unjust when it cautions Christians against their in- 
fluence, because they are deceived and deluded 1 The 
god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that 
believe not. But have not Christians escaped beyond the 
circle of that influence 1 Not so long as they are social 
beings, with an imperfect character, surrounded by unbe- 
lieving friends. The world is in error, deep, practical, 
destructive error. With some it is an error of theory. 
With all it is an error of the heart. It is painful to see 
them walking in the deceitfulness of their own imagin- 
ings, to be amused, to be cheered and flattered, until they 
awake amid the disappointments of another world. The 
Church must see that the world is in darkness and error, 
and must show them their path. And it is the more need- 
ful to caution you on this point, because the most dan- 



244 SERMON X. 

serous errors of worldly men are not put in the form of 
distinct propositions ; but they come insidiously and pow- 
erfully instilled'into your very heart, through every chan- 
nel of social feeling. — The errors of the world come com- 
mended and palliated by the fascinations of wealth, rank, 
talent, refinement, station and friendship. You do not 
hear them proclaim, there is no God, no heaven, no hell ; 
but it is proclaimed in every plan, every sentence, every 
tone, every step. I wish to be understood : there is a 
powerful and insidious influence from the world, which 
will induce you to walk by sight, and not by faith, unless 
greatly watchful. I will mention some of their errors. 

I. They are in fatal error on the subject of Happiness. 

No reference is here made to their theories ; but I 
speak of those practical views which control their hearts 
and conduct. This point admits of illustration. 

1. They seek the transient gratifications of a day, because 
they esteem them more important than their everlasting 
welfare in an immortal state. Show me two men who act 
as if they had immortal souls one hour after they have 
left the worship of God j and I will show you ten who act 
as if man's interest were concentrated here. They do 
not walk in Truth. For it is true that we are immortal — 
it is true that the interests of timeare as a feather in the 
scale against the vast interests of our ever enduring 
souls. It is true, that present happiness is a cheap sacri- 
fice if its abandonment be connected with the blessings of 
eternity. Yes, the world, the intelligent world, the learn- 
ed, the mighty, the high, the low, the bond and free, de- 
spise the crown, the harp, the song, the society, the joy 
of heaven, because the pursuit of them would interfere 
with some fleeting, selfish duty. It is true, the world 
shrink from the pain, the shame of a day ; but they rush 
into the shame and agony of eternal damnation. — Here is 
error and delusion, just as ruinous as avowed infidelity. 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 245 

It is sympathy with these errors, and falling in with this 
current, that cause the distressing backslidings in the 
Church. It is error which you can scarcely combat with 
reason ; for none defend it. But this only makes it the 
more dangerous. To walk in truth, is to walk on earth 
in the light of heaven, to be directed through time's dark- 
ness by the beams of eternal day. 

2. Another mistake about Happiness is, — They know not 
in what it consists. 

Happiness is found in the favour of God — misery in 
his frown. The world deny it. They seek happiness in 
the smiles of popular favour. They chase the approbation 
of erring man, and turn away from the smile of God. 
They dread the contempt and the wrath of man. But they 
have no fear of God's indignation, no dread of his con- 
tempt. This is not truth, my fellow-men. This is not 
regarding things as they are. And one hour of bliss un- 
der the smile of God before his throne, or of agony, be- 
neath his, executed curse, would give a demonstration 
such as words cannot furnish. There is a luxury in the 
tears of penitence — there is peace and joy in believing. 
Sometimes it is the commencement of heaven to be in a 
social circle of praying friends. But the world knows 
nothing, practically believes nothing, of this. My sorrow 
shall be when I hear that my children come under this 
influence ; my joy shall be enlarged when I hear that they 
walk in truth ; that they are not looking for happiness 
where the world seek it :— Because I shall know if they 
do, that they are sowing the wind, and must reap the 
whirlwind. Truth, and truth alone, will endure the test 
of time. For a season, it may seem to the superficial 
observer that the world is right ; but the magic spell must 
be broken j the frost work must melt away. 

3. The world overrate Happiness. 

There is something more important than present h'ap- 
22 



246 SERMON X. 

piness. It is character — not reputation, but character ; 
and there is no excellence of character but holiness. Be- 
lieve it, it is more important that you be holy, than that 
you be happy ; or rather, since holiness ensures happi- 
ness, I would say, it is more important that you deny 
yourself, in order to obtain perfect holiness, than that you 
have any degree of present happiness. It is riot accord- 
ing to truth to live in such a contracted sphere of selfish 
desires and grovelling motives as actuate a worldly heart. 
Man was made for virtue and for benevolence. He is 
placed and preserved here to train himself for heaven, 
under the sweet influences of the gospel and grace of 
Jesus Christ. 

II. Another error of the world is, — They underrate 
excellence. 

Their admiration is carried away with superficial and 
even unholy traits of character in man. But the glorious 
excellence of God — the transcendent loveliness of Jesus 
Christ, they don ot value j and where some faint reflection 
of the beams of that loveliness is seen in the regenerated, 
they do not admire it. But here is truth. God is amia- 
ble and glorious — the vision of Jesus' charms is ravish- 
ing. Were you out of this dark, smoky, sin-blinded 
world ; were you among the sons of light, the tall hierar- 
chies of heaven ; had you wings to soar and mount on 
high, you would realize it. But the world walketh in a 
vain show. 

III. They adopt false principles* 

I will select but one of these for illustration; what is 
popular is right — what is unpopular is wrong. — It is a 
doctrine which would for ever confirm the empire of the 
arch deceiver over mankind. It is the doctrine by which 
Luther was met, and by which he was ranked an ultraist. 
It met Jesus Christ in his labours as a reformer. He was 
ahead of public sentiment. His doctrine was unpopular, 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 247 

therefore it was wrong ; its promulgation agitated the 
community and drew down the indignation of the great 
conductors of public sentiment ; therefore it was wrong. 
This is not truth, and may the Church never walk in 
it. 

There are errors in the Church too ; I do not mean 
those fundamental heresies which sap the very vital prin- 
ciple of religion : but I refer to errors which seriously 
retard the progress of personal piety, and enervate the 
arm of her power. There may yet come in among you 
those who will bring damnable heresies. But as I do not 
see from what quarter the attack will arise, nor in what 
form the enemy will come, that must be committed to the 
Great Shepherd. 

The practical errors of the Church to which I refer, 
are — 

1. Extravagant views of human depravity and inability. 

By these, man has been turned into a machine, and 
his responsibility virtually denied, and his sense of obli- 
gation paralyzed. On this subject it may suffice now to 
say, that the Bible and human consciousness correspond. 
The Bible exhibits man as deeply depraved, and yet as 
totally inexcusable for his past and present wickedness, 
and fully responsible to do his duty immediately and for 
ever. To this the consciousness and the observation of 
mankind respond. The heart of man is depraved. There 
is no question of its deep depravity. But the depravity 
of his heart has not taken away his power to do what 
God now requires of him ; else the foundations of re- 
sponsibility are destroyed; and man would only have to 
do wrong to make it impossible that he should be any 
longer under obligation to do right. In the language of 
the Presbyterian Confession of Faith : " God hath endued 
the will of man with that natural liberty, that it is neither 
forced, nor by any absolute necessity of nature, determin- 



248 SERMON X. 

ed to good or evil." And to fortify this sentiment, their 
well-chosen proof text is the address of Joshua to the 
Israelites — " I call heaven and earth to record this day 
against you, that I have set before you life and death, 
blessing and cursing ; therefore choose life, that both 
thou and thy seed may live." The fall perverted, but did 
not destroy the free agency of man ; perverted the use of 
his powers in action, but did not destroy the existence of 
those powers which distinguish man as a subject of moral 
government, from animals, and which lie at the founda- 
tion of all obligation. 

It is a truth, then, which you must hold, if you would 
vindicate the justice of Jehovah's government, that he 
exacts of his creatures that which they have the native 
powers to perform, while there is such an utter, certain, 
and desperate aversion of disposition and will to it, as to 
make the interference and constant agency of the Holy 
Spirit indispensable. Thus is the justice of God vindi- 
cated, while the pride and self-sufficiency of man are 
brought low, and the Church brought to feel the need of 
the Spirit's agency. 

2. The Church entertain extravagant views of the sove- 
reignty of God. 

There is a strong inclination to refer the religious in- 
terests of man to God, in a way which would appear to 
them perfectly absurd, if applied to the common affairs 
of life. It is true in the spiritual world, that Paul may 
plant and Apollos water ; but God must give the increase. 
But it is equally true in the natural world. Now the 
error we speak of, is — to omit the most earnest and skil- 
ful employment of means adapted to the end, in the sal- 
vation of the soul, because we depend on God for success. 
So did not Paul, the unwearied missionary. The error 
is, to rest satisfied when the Church is cold, and sinners 
are going carelessly to perdition ; and to attribute it to 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 249 

the sovereignty and the purposes of God. That is prac- 
tical heresy, which makes the Church weak in her oppo- 
sition to the prince of darkness. This error shows itself 
in the manner of directing sinners. They are often told, 
not to do what God requires them to do, but to do some- 
thing else in order to obtain the power to do what God 
requires. It is supposed the sinner has power to pray 
acceptably without the Spirit, to plead without faith, with- 
out repentance, with a proud, selfish, unsubdued heart, 
and to plead successfully for the Holy Spirit ; but he has 
no power to repent. This, my brethren, is neither ration- 
al nor scriptural. So did not Paul nor Peter. Point me 
to the place where they urged an inquiring sinner to pray 
in impenitence and unbelief for grace to enable him to 
repent ; where did they not press the mind directly to the 
cross, and urge the rebel child to fly with penitential sor- 
row to his father's feet to obtain forgiveness 

"And I consent you take it for your text, 
Your only one, till sides and benches fail." 

This error has still another pernicious form. It is in 
making men very zealous about the Spirit's agency ; but 
not warning them and arousing their hearts to the exer- 
cise of frequent and fervent prayer. Now it is true, we 
are dependent on the Spirit for spiritual life. It is true, 
the moral waste around us will never bud and blossom as 
the rose unless the " south wind" blow upon it. But it 
is just as true — that the mere belief of that, neither hon- 
ours nor obtains the influences of the Holy Spirit. It is 
by prayer, secret and social, fervent, faithful and frequent, 
that must obtain them for himself and for others. To 
say nothing of secret prayer, how often ought the Church 
to be assembled in her public and social character to pray 
for the Holy Spirit, in order to put becoming honour upon 
his blessed office] Let the eight days' prayer meeting 

22* 



250 SERMON X. 

of the apostles give us some general direction, if not 
definite model. Prayer, sincere, humble and fervent, 
honours the person and office of the Eternal Spirit. 

3. The duty of the Church concerning the improvement 
of public morals. 

The Church of Christ and her ministers are bound to 
be the leaders of public opinion in all questions of moral- 
ity. I admit that Christians and ministers have the entire 
right of examining every proposed improvement in pub- 
lic morals, and likewise the means of effecting that im- 
provement. That is, they are accountable to God, and 
not to man, for their conclusions on these points ; and it 
is not fair uniformly to make these opinions tests of their 
piety or their infidelity. But with these concessions, I 
would distinctly assert that the business, the duty, of 
the Church and her ministry is, to rectify a false and 
depraved public sentiment. It is the business of the min- 
istry to take for granted that a world lying in darkness 
and wickedness has a wrong standard of morality — that 
the popular customs and maxims of society, will stand in 
direct hostility to the law and will of God ; and then to 
point out to the world how and wherein it is thus wrong, 
and urge it by all the tremendous sanctions of God's 
word to abandon sin, and seek forgiveness. So Isaiah 
and Jeremiah and Daniel and Ezekiel understood their 
commissions. So did John the Baptist. So did Jesus 
Christ and each of his apostles. 

Strange that it should be a question whether we should 
oppose actual and popular sins just as fast as they are 
discoveied. Why, every motive of love to God and be- 
nevolence to man urges it. — And yet a large number of 
pious men tremble when we agitate a wicked world by 
urging it to abandon some fashionable and deep-rooted 
sins. To me it is passing strange, for instance, that it 
should be thought fanatical or inexpedient in us to declare 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 251 

the system of domestic slavery as sanctioned by law and 
carried out in practice in our southern States, to he a 
high crime against God and man. Sometimes they tell 
us it is of no use to agitate it in the north ; we should go 
south. Then, we reply, our action at best is harmless. 
But again they tell us, it will rend the Union. My 
brethren, I wish I had the time now to examine this point 
with you by the Bible, and in the light of the great day 
of accounts. I have no fear that Jesus Christ will then 
reproach me for proclaiming it a crime to treat immortal 
mind as the property of man, a mere machine to work 
for the pecuniary benefit of another. If there is not 
blood staining our nation in this matter, and if it is not 
the duty of Christian ministers to call the nation to repent 
and put away the sin, then I must confess that I have 
mistaken the whole design and commission of God's am- 
bassadors. — But I shall have occasion again to refer to 
the subject of ministerial prudence, a very important 
qualification in its place ; but a very hurtful one when 
unduly exercised. 

It would now remain to describe to you the truths to 
be believed and practised. But for this I refer you to 
the Confession* this day read in your presence — and to 
all my past ministry. I have endeavoured to give you a 
comprehensive, distinct and minute view of the truths re- 
vealed for your salvation. I have consciously withheld 
no portion from you. The character, the government, 
the providence, the purposes of God — the divine and hu- 
man character, the work and offices of Jesus Christ — the 
personality ^and offices of the Spirit of God — the apostacy, 
total degeneracy and ruin of man — his absolute depen- 
dence on the grace of God — his exposure to eternal 
wrath — his duty immediate and indispensable to repent — 

* Referring to the confession subscribed by the members admitted on 
that day. 



252 SERMON X. 

the vast responsibility of Christians — the promises at- 
tached to the commands — the glorious privileges and 
prospects of the children of God, have been explained 
and urged with all the power received from heaven. 
And now, dear brethren, it remains for you to walk in 
these truths — by knowing and believing them as living 
realities — feeling their transcendent importance — by gov- 
erning your conduct by them — by obeying them your- 
selves — and by spreading the knowledge and influence of 
them among others. 

The importance of it is seen in a thousand considera- 
tions. God had great and especial ends to accomplish 
in this peculiar revelation. He gave you this truth that 
you might walk in it ; for on this depends your personal 
holiness— your happiness — your usefulness. 

These are powerful considerations. But I wish to 
urge and to expand two others. 

I mean the peculiar mercies of God to this Church, 
which powerfully augment the obligations of its mem- 
bers to do his will ; and the confirmation he has given in 
its progress, of certain great principles. 

We may say of this Church as Balaam said of Israel, 
when its tents lay spread far and wide along the valley 
beneath him, " What hath God wrought ? according to 
this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel — what 
hath God wrought V y 

I have felt my soul, my being, identified with this 
Church. More than eight years have rolled away since I 
saw the first little band cluster together in the name and 
strength of the God of Israel, to raise another banner to 
his glory. To have said much about it before the present 
time, would virtually have been to speak of myself. But 
that period is past. Since the purpose has been fixed to 
leave you for a time — perhaps for ever — a new feeling 
has come over the heart. I feel as if I could stand aside 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 253 

with a more chastened affection and more impartial eye to 
behold the wonders and riches of Divine mercy. Of the 
fifty-five who laid the first foundation stone of this spirit- 
ual structure, only twenty-eight are now among us. Of 
the two hundred and thirty-two who constituted the 
Church at the close of the first year, and saw that dark, 
distressing period, when nothing but the naked hand of 
Christ held us up among the roaring waters, only one 
hundred and eleven are now with us. They recollect, 
they can never forget those days. It was " one day 
known to the Lord, not day nor night ; but it came to 
pass, that at evening time it was light," To-night I take 
a review of that period with you. To those who now 
constitute this Church, my message is — behold what the 
Lord hath wrought. It is befitting this solemn and try- 
ing occasion to recount, like Israel of old, the mercies of 
God, that you may praise his name — that you may under- 
stand more definitely the history of the principles of this 
association, with which you have become so intimately 
connected — that you may feel your obligations. It is 
usual on such occasions for the pastor to speak of his 
own labours. I cannot do it. If I tell all that is in my 
heart, I shall fall upon my knees and cry, Deliver me from 
blood guiltiness. I shall supplicate forgiveness of the 
Church — I shall weep at the feet of sinners, and ask them 
to forgive my selfishness, and my unfaithfulness and cru- 
elty to their souls. By the grace of God something has 
been done ; but grace and power were given that have 
not been always improved. But I pass that, to make 
mention of the wonderful acts of Him who has estab- 
lished with his people an unchanging covenant. " give 
thanks unto the Lord ; call upon his name ; make known 
his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms 
unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye 
in his holy name ; let the heart of them that seek the 



254 SERMON X. 

Lord, rejoice. Seek the Lord and his strength ; seek his 
face evermore. Remember his marvellous works that he 
hath done ; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth ; 
O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob 
his chosen." To illustrate his goodness, let us place the 
beginning and the end of the period of eight years to- 
gether. On the 16th of November, 1828, I preached the 
first sermon to a company collected in the consistory 
room, kindly offered to us by the officers of the North 
Dutch Church ; who have thus imposed a debt which we 
would cheerfully repay in the same currency if an oppor- 
tunity occurred ; as we have endeavoured to repay it in 
thankfulness and benedictions. There were then two, 
views taken of the enterprise. On the one side, both the 
friends and the enemies of God said it was an unholy en- 
terprise, unwise and uncalled for ; I was charged with fa- 
naticism and boyish indiscretion. It was said by the sa- 
gacious, " "What do these men build % behold, if a fox go 
up on their walls they will fall down." When this build- 
ing was commenced, some ridiculed j obstructions met 
us in the usual financial arrangements, suspicions were 
set afloat concerning the safety of crediting any one con- 
nected even indirectly with the enterprise. When the 
first indications of the special presence of God's Spirit 
were experienced, we were branded with the severest ep- 
ithets, and the ears of God's children were open to the 
falsehoods of the wicked. Then understood I the mean- 
ing of the Psalmist, and the feelings of the blessed Sa- 
viour in some measure : " My soul is among lions, and I 
lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons 
of men whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their 
tongue a sharp sword ; who whet their tongue like a 
sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even 
bitter words." Now, God forbid that I should refer to 
the past in a spirit of revenge or of boasting. I should 






VALEDICTORY SERMON. 255 

loathe myself if I could ever indulge such feelings, but 
especially on such an occasion. God knows my heart 
toward this whole community, and toward those who 
were once my bitterest enemies. I do not boast ; but I 
say — on the one side were these views and feelings, and 
predictions; on the other, with much human imperfec- 
tion, we certainly had these for our leading principles 
and feelings — a determination to sustain the plain, hon- 
est exhibition of the truths of the gospel, without con- 
sulting unconverted men, whether they were pleased or 
displeased — and an unwavering confidence that God 
would bless us if we served him. There were many con- 
siderations which induced me to remain here. Low and 
selfish motives were attributed. My friends — I say it to 
the glory of God — I had as much confidence when I met 
in the first prayer meeting with twenty persons, that God 
would greatly bless us, as I have now that he has blessed 
us. Do not call it presumption, for I knew that I wa3 
surrounded by a praying band. Among many other con- 
siderations which induced me to remain and bear the 
peltings of the pitiless storm, was the fact, as stated then 
to me, that a number of Christians were engaged in 
prayer from sun-set to sun-rise, that I might not be per- 
mitted to leave the city. That turned the scale ; I could 
not desert such spirits ; and I knew God would bless 
them. I saw it, I felt it ; and I feel now as if I could go 
gladly to attack the spirits in the pit, if God sent me, sur- 
rounded by such hearts. And more than this, this enter- 
prise and my unworthy name were on the lips of hun- 
dreds of God's praying people, from this city to Buffalo. 
An eminent saint, who preached over a wide circuit, was 
in the habit of encouraging the churches to bear our cause 
to the mercy seat continually. I consider this church a 
monument inscribed with the evidences of the power of 
prayer, and the faithfulness of Jacob's God. The enemy 



256 SERMON X. 

said — by whom shall Jacob arise % for he is small. We 
replied — in God is our trust ; we will make our boast in 
the Lord. Now let us see how the Lord hath dealt with 
us. — Truly he hath encouraged the hearts of them that 
believed, and he hath silenced the enemy and avenger. 
I preached from Nov. 1828, to Feb. 1829, at which time 
the Church was organized. And it seemed as if the Lord 
would try our faith, by suspending the manifestation of 
his favour, until as a distinct, organized and consecrated 
Church, we sat down for the first time, to celebrate the 
death of Christ, I shall never forget that day. After its 
toils were over, I was sent for, late at night, to see a 
trembling soul who had that day been brought to see her 
guilt and danger. That was the first fruit of a glorious 
harvest. An inquiry meeting was appointed ; and to my 
surprise, upwards of sixty were present. From that day 
to this, we have not passed the year without some special 
outpouring of the Spirit of God. It would animate the 
hearts of other Christians to hear a description of the ex- 
ercises of many who have been converted. — Never can I 
forget that beloved apartment of this building where I 
have met the inquirers, and where I have seen them con- 
secrate themselves to God and the Lamb. Oh, what 
changes in individual character ; in families, nay, in 
neighbourhoods, hath God's blessed Spirit wrought! 
Within this period, there have been united to this church, 
by letter and on confession 1012 members, making an av- 
erage of 125 each year. The Sabbath School has con- 
tained 1500 pupils. We have contributed moneys which 
I can trace as follows : Domestic Missions, $853 ; Tract 
Society, $823 ; Colonization, $215 ; Bible Society, $170 ; 
City objects, $1220; Sabbath School, $700; Theological 
Education, $4964; Foreign Missions, $4900. Total, 
$13,843— an average of $1730 per annum. 

We incurred immediately on our organization a heavy 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 257 

debt, which is now, by our own exertions and the aid of 
friends, nearly extinguished. 

Forty-six of our brethren and sisters have changed 
their connexion with the earthly for one with the hea- 
venly Church. How glorious it has been to see them 
turn to the Lord and seriously address themselves to pre- 
paration for death, and then to witness the reality of the 
change, and its importance tested and demonstrated in the 
honest hour of the soul's approach to the judgment seat. 
To see the law-condemned sinner repent, the rebel re- 
turn and obtain forgiveness ; to follow the soul through 
its successive stages of heavenly improvement and re- 
finement ; and then to stand on the verge of the river of 
death, to wade in and support the departing spirit until 
it catches a view of the celestial glory, to hear it shout, 
to see it just touching the blissful shore — this is a minis- 
ter's salary. Mine has been paid. " Behold, what hath 
God wrought 1 If it had not been the Lord who was on 
our side, now may Israel say, when men rose up against 
us ; then they had swallowed us up quickly when their 
wrath was kindled against us ; then the water had over- 
whelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul ; then 
the proud waters had gone over our soul. Our soul has 
escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler ; the 
snare is broken, and we are escaped. Our help is in the 
name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth." "Ye 
are my witnesses," saith the Lord. We are, mighty God. 
Thou hast glorified thy mercy and thy truth in the midst 
of us. There is another aspect of God's dealings with us. 

He has kindly chastened us. We have not been ex- 
empt from the common experience of troublesome mem- 
bers, backsliders, general coldness and utter apostacies. 
But in looking back on the rapid advance of this enter- 
prise, the wonder is, that in such a sudden forming into 
one mass, of so many people, of such various habits, 

23 



258 SERMON X. 

temperament and education, that more difficulties have 
not occurred. It is wonderful that self-will, the last of 
all the human passions to be subdued, the great nuisance 
of every moral government, has not shown itself more 
strongly and more vexatiously here. It would have done 
so, but the hand of the Lord has been with us. He tempered 
the fire that was consuming our dross. We bless him 
that he has afflicted us, and so afflicted us. And now we 
may look back on those days of rebuke and say — "When 
the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like 
them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, 
and our tongue with singing ; then said they among the 
Gentiles, the Lord hath done great things for them. The 
Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. 
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth 
forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless 
come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with 
him." In addition to this view of God's mercies to the 
Church, I would impress obligation by showing that God 
has in a particular manner confirmed in the midst of us^ 
certain great principles. 

1. The power of prayer. 

The foundation stone of this enterprise was laid 
emphatically in prayer ; the duty of prayer has been en- 
joined and urged incessantly. Meetings for prayer have 
been multiplied to a degree, in the estimation of many, 
extravagant. Now it is not fair to presume that there has 
been any more sincere prayer here in proportion, than 
with other Christians. But it is fair to suppose, that there 
has been as much in proportion, and consequently that 
there has been in fact more real prayer than in most so- 
cieties around us. We have assembled in the early morn- 
ing for months. We have met, for long periods, at 10 
o'clock every morning to pray directly for the conversion 
of the impenitent. We have believed in the transcendent 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 259 

importance of the conversion of men. We have prayed 
for it. We have witnessed it in hundreds of joyful in- 
stances. All our history is such a demonstration of the 
efficacy of prayer, that if I had never had any other proof, 
I should feel an overwhelming sense of obligation to pray 
without ceasing. 

2. God will bless the faithful exertions of his people. 
When we speak of faithfulness, it is only relative. It 

has been found here, that whenever we employed certain 
instrumentalities with earnestness, they were blessed. 
Whenever the Church has consecrated special seasons to 
prayer, and to exertions to awaken in the community a 
sense of the importance of personal religion ; they have 
never failed of success. 

3. That to feel for others, and to give of our property 
for their good, is blessed. 

We commenced with a love to the cause of evangel- 
izing the world. In debt as a Church, poor as individu- 
als, we have never yet failed to do our proportion, not of 
what ought to be done, but of what has been done in this 
great cause. There were times when the faith of some 
of our brethren staggered on this point ; it seemed to 
them presumptuous to be sending away hundreds of dol- 
lars to others, when a heavy debt hung upon our own 
wheels. But we have never failed. For the last six years 
we have supported a foreign missionary ; and during the 
current year we have raised by subscription nearly $300 
more. But we have lost nothing. The monthly concert 
of prayer has been to us a delightful season. In water- 
ing others, we have ever been watered ourselves. And 
when we at length struggled to roll off our heavy debt, 
God helped us. He inclined the hearts of our young men 
to step promptly forward ; and he raised up for us kind 
friends in the community. 



260 SERMON X. 

4. The duty of the Church to take a high stand in the 
reformations which benevolent men are urging forward. 

We have been met, as before remarked, with the sen- 
timent in various forms — that the Church and her minis- 
ters must not go in advance of public sentiment. The 
pledge to abstain from ardent spirits was thought by many 
to be a very good thing. But it was not discreet to in- 
troduce the subject into the pulpit, and to urge it for- 
ward. We believed not so. Nay more 5 we believed 
that it was our duty as a Church to admit no one to our 
communion who would not enter into this stipulation. 
We wanted no Christians who could stand aside and look 
with indifference upon this noble effort of philanthropy 
and piety. We have never had occasion to regret it, but 
much reason to rejoice in it. God has blessed it. Many 
reformed inebriates have entered this Church, and to my 
knowledge there is no case of relapse. The walls of this 
building have resounded for successive months with the 
pleas of the eloquent friends of temperance ; and many a 
heart has been gladdened as the father, husband and son 
have come forward and pledged themselves to the aban- 
donment of the destructive drink. The plea for the Sabbath, 
and the plea for the seventh commandment, have been 
urged here. And I rejoice that on this platform has been 
urged the claim of the enslaved. I have heard of the 
danger of exposing the building and the audience to mo- 
lestation. I have heard of something worse, — the odium 
attached to the cause of liberty. But we have gloried to 
bear that odium. We rejoice that God enabled us to 
erect one of the buildings in this city where the cry of 
the oppressed and down-trodden could be echoed in the 
ear of Christian sympathy. We feel assured that it is 
right. We bless God for the assurance his providence 
affords us, that it is right for his Church to be the pioneer 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 261 

of moral reformations. The right of opinion is a natural 
right — the right of expressing opinion is another con- 
ferred by the author of the human constitution 5 and both 
sacredly guaranteed by the bond of our political union. 
And I know nothing more alarming in modern politics, 
than the attempt to brow-beat free American citizens in 
the peaceful maintenance of eternal truths, and to perse- 
cute them for the candid, manly and courteous expression 
of those sentiments. We have a right to try to convince 
the north and south. Ministers have a right from God, 
and a commission and a warrant from the American con- 
stitution, to expose the sins and dangers involved in the 
system of oppression legalized and practised among us. 
I am ashamed to hear it said — there are places in Amer- 
ica, where you cannot candidly and temperately discuss 
great questions of public duty and safety. 

5. The propriety, policy and importance of plain, direct, 
pungent preaching. 

Here I make no contrasts. Hearing no preaching out 
of this place, I am unable to form a judgment concerning 
the various styles adopted in this city. But I know that 
when I preached to another congregation, they turned 
me from them because I preached too directly and pun- 
gently. I never could hear any other objection on the 
most careful inquiry. On that point I was entreated to 
change. But on that point this Church took its stand 
from the commencement, and determined to welcome the 
most direct and pungent preaching that was according to 
the word of God. Now for the importance of it — it is to 
us most manifest that God has connected the conversion 
of hundreds with that as an indispensable means. As to 
the policy of it; it was said — why men will desert your 
churches. God has shown us it is not so. And more 
than that, I am the living witness to the fact, that the 
churches in this city will now bear a degree of directness 

23* 



262 sermon r, 

and pungency that would once have heen thought intoler- 
able. I am told I have altered. I say, public sentiment 
has altered. Among the most convincing proofs of it to 
me is, that I am ashamed now to preach those very ser- 
mons which made the disturbance in the Second Church, 
because they are too tame and pointless. 

And now, dear friends, having shown what 'God hath 
wrought for and by this society, you will permit me to 
speak more directly of God's mercies to me as your 
Pastor. No man can tell what I have passed through in 
this city. My entrance here was nattering, my reception 
every thing I could ask as a man and a minister. So 
long as Foreign Missions was my topic, all went well. 
But when I turned to show the amiable and moral and 
respected of this community that they were more guilty 
than the heathen, and were going to a deeper condemna- 
tion, they rose in might against me. I had never known 
an enemy before since my conversion. I had never been 
slandered. But now a new scene awaited me in this 
goodly city. I was reviled, my sermons and sentiments 
misrepresented, friends grew cold and enemies multiplied. 
For a stripling this was new, and, you may be sure, well 
nigh overwhelming. My heart overflowed with love to 
all. I could not see why any should persecute me. But 
oh, it was a blessed school. I would not 'part with the 
lessons there learned for all the enjoyments of an undis- 
turbed prosperity. Yet for three years I walked the 
streets of this city, feeling as if, by God's command, I 
was an intruder here. I have felt as if the very houses 
frowned upon me. Cheerfully would I have fled and hid 
myself like Elijah in a cave ; but the very style of the 
opposition showed clearly that the controversy was with 
God and his word, not with the lips of clay which uttered 
it. But I turn from that to speak of the hearts which 
cherished and the hands which upheld me in those- trying 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 263 

days. Brethren, sisters, I thus publicly thank you. You 
gave not only a cup of cold water to a disciple when it 
was a reproach to you, — you shared his sorrows, you 
shielded his reputation with your own, you would have 
shared the last earthly comfort with him ; you would 
have died with him for Christ. You wept for me, you 
carried my burdens, you prayed for me. I know it. And 
my heart thanks you ; my soul clings to you. But chiefly 
I recognise the goodness of God in it, in whose hands 
are all hearts. I thank the members of the Church for 
their forbearance and sympathy and respect, and the 
many proofs of their love. Nothing but love has made 
you bear with my very imperfect discharge of the duties 
I owe you. God hath wrought in you this heart of kind- 
ness. My highest thanks are due to him. I thank God 
this night before you all for his provident care of me. I 
have not been prevented by sickness from preaching, so 
many as twelve Sabbaths, for nearly nine years. Since 
commencing to form this Church I have preached to you 
about one thousand sermons. I have assisted other 
churches in sustaining more than thirty protracted meet- 
ings. I have delivered ninety addresses on Temperance ; 
more than a hundred addresses on Foreign Missions ; 
many on Slavery ; many for objects in our city ; for the 
Tract, Bible, Education, and other societies ; attended 
and addressed the various societies in three anniversaries 
at New-York, one at Cincinnati, one at Lexington, Ky , 
one at Boston, one at Troy. I have performed a tour 
through many principal cities in this state and into Can- 
ada, on the subject of Common School Education. 

With the fullest sense of my unworthiness to labour 
in so glorious a cause, do I this night render thanks to 
God for bestowing upon me the ability and disposition to 
perform these labours. Brethren, I have become a fool 
in glorying ; but God is my witness, I do it for his glory. 



264 SERMON X. 

I dare not refrain. I have been a child of Providence. 
David could not hold his tongue from uttering the mercies 
of God after his great deliverances. 

And now, brethren, I am about to say — Farewell. I 
leave you, not because I do not love you. My heart 
grows closer to you every day. This Church appears to 
me more interesting, and more important than ever. I 
go, because I believe I ought to go. Europe is dear to 
my heart ; but America is dearer. And I know that if 
permitted, I shall hail its shores again with delight. I go 
to gather light from the experience of ages, to see man in 
other climates, and under other institutions. My soul 
pants for knowledge, human and divine. But I would 
not indulge the desire, could not that knowledge, when 
acquired, be employed for greater usefulness. 

Be assured, it is not for myself. Whatever I am now, 
or may be hereafter, is my country's and my God's. I 
consecrate it to the Church of Christ and to the human 
race. Brethren, what mean ye to weep and break my 
heart 1 If there be pleasure in the prospect of seeing 
many wonders, of witnessing the splendid trophies of hu- 
man genius, of indulging the powerful desires of curiosi- 
ty ; I have felt little of it, and less and less as the time of 
our separation has approached. The recollections of the 
past, the evidences of your ardent andunbought love, the 
anticipation of your painful feelings when an accustomed 
voice, which your own kindness has made you love to 
hear, shall be heard no more ; these considerations have 
occupied my mind supremely. The question, how shall 
I accomplish the most good for this beloved people during 
the brief period of our intercourse, has weighed heavily 
on my heart. And now the end of this anxiety is reached, 
and I am called to perform the last act of religious ser- 
vice in this endeared sanctuary. ! it is with a heavy 
heart I say to such friends — farewell. Deeply shall your 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 265 

names, your countenances be engraven on this memory. I 
shall carry a catalogue of them with me, and spread it be- 
fore that mercy seat at which we have so often met. My 
children, my brothers, my fathers, walk in the truth. 
God has been with you, is with you, has promised still to 
be with you. Look at all the way in which he has led 
you. Ebenezers line the path of your history. Each 
once speaks to your heart — be of good courage, for our 
God is an unchanging God. 

Brethren in the eldership, called to watch over this 
flock with me, a double responsibility will now come 
upon you. I can no longer share that superintendence. 
But it is not among the least of God's mercies that the 
recent meetings we have held, the enlargement of your 
numbers, and the plan of operations adopted, give such 
promise of benefits to the Church. Be regular, be punc- 
tual in your sessional meetings. Go to this afflicted peo- 
ple ; watch over them j for the tempter will now have 
peculiar power over many, by making a readier excuse for 
deserting the ordinances and the house of God. Watch 
over every wheel in our moral machinery. See that none 
of them stop, see that each is kept in repair, and is mov- 
ing in its place. I commend to you the Sabbath Schools, 
the Bible Classes, the Young Men's Association, the Ma- 
ternal Association, the Converts' Class, the Prayer Meet- 
ing, the Tract Distribution, the Benevolent Societies. 
See that this people hear the claims of each during every 
year. Do not let them hug their purses, and close their 
ear to the cry of the perishing. Call the attention of this 
people to the great moral reformations of our day. En- 
list their hearts for the drunkard, the slave, the unwary 
youth who walks amid the snares of the licentious, the 
Sabbath profaner. Point this people to the times and 
seasons and ways when they can labour with special pro- 
mise of success for the conversion of sinners. 

Fathers, mothers, love the souls of your children. 



266 SERMON X. 

Much, much remains to be done for them, that has not 
been done. There is a degree and kind of prayer, of anx- 
iety, of skill, of perseverance, which you have not yet 
adopted. I entreat every mother of young children to 
join the Maternal Association and love it, for it must 'ben- 
efit you if your heart is right. 

Young men, be strong in the Lord. Cherish the asso- 
ciation which you have formed. Cherish this Church. 
Bear it on your strong shoulders, and inspire it with your 
own constitutional vigour. 

Young women, the modern development of God's 
providences have opened to you new, wide and appropri- 
ate spheres of great usefulness; enter and walk in them. 

Aged fathers and mothers in Israel, I rejoice that you 
have almost reached your crown. Be faithful unto death. 

Dear children, you are very dear to me. It is your 
conversion I have sought, and now most earnestly desire. 
Turn now to the Lord. Give your hearts to him and 
serve him. 

Dear converts : — next to the impenitent, there is no 
class of our Church and congregation from whom I so 
reluctantly separate. I know others can watch over you 
and teach you. But ye have not many fathers. I have 
no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in 
truth. 

To the members of the Church generally, let me re- 
commend a chastened, Christian love to this Church. I 
mean no,t with party spirit nor sectarian zeal. But be- 
cause your responsibilities are concentrated here ; here 
exert yourselves in building up the knowledge of Christ. 
Love other Christians, other sects. Look more at the 
great points of resemblance, than at the minor points of 
difference. Cherish the spirit of harmony with one an- 
other. Let no root of bitterness spring up, no schism. 
Abhor the talebearer and backbiter, the curse of every 
community, peculiarly of a Church. And now let me 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 267 

express to you my fear of the advantage which the adver- 
sary will take of my departure. Your thoughts and con- 
versations concerning a man may lead even your hearts 
from God. When my father and my mother forsake me, 
then the Lord will take me up, said an ancient saint. 
This is from the Lord ; whether I am right or wrong in 
this step. He directs it to you. See his hand and kiss 
the rod. Yield your personal preferences concerning 
him who succeeds. Finally, brethren, pray for me. 

Once more, unconverted hearers, let your friend and 
brother turn to you. You have honoured my ministry. 
I thank you for it. But my master — how have you treated 
him 1 And his message, how have you treated that 1 O 
must I, your friend and brother, be a swift witness against 
youl Life and death, good and evil, blessings and curs- 
ings have been set before you in the name of the Lord. 
But here I leave you unreconciled to God. May I linger 
yet a moment around you — may I yet persuade by all the 
claims of God, by all the terrors of his curse, by all the 
price paid for your redemption, by all the yearnings of a 
brother's heart, to form the great decision by which you 
cross the dividing line between life and death; to exer- 
cise that repentance by which you can honestly come to 
Christ, that faith by which you can partake of the ful- 
ness of his salvation. Come, come, I entreat you. With 
a lingering step, 1 turn from you — will you come 1 

Citizens of Albany — farewell! Have I wronged you, 
have I misled ; or have I been as a prophet of the Lord 
in the midst of you 1 Speak ; for I am now sealing the 
first section of my ministry, perhaps the last among you. 
I have stood on yon heights and looked over your dwell- 
ings, and my anxious thoughts have dwelt upon your 
spiritual interests ; my fervent prayers have arisen for 
you and your children. I have been willing to labour for 
the general good just as much as for this individual asso- 
ciation. If any have injured me, I would they knew how 



268 SERMON X. 

fully they are forgiven. If I have injured any, I would 
they knew how sincerely T implore forgiveness. Many 
of you have kindly appreciated my desires for your wel- 
fare, whatever you have thought of the imperfect manner 
employed to promote it. You are kind, and your kindness 
will be remembered. 

Members of sister churches, God bless you, and make 
you grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. Remember your absent brother. 

Unconverted fellow-citizens ; hear the last word of a 
parting friend — make Christ your Saviour, and Heaven 
your prize. Ye must be born again. Turn then quickly 
to the Lord, and your souls shall live.; 
Again, dear friends — farewell — farewell. 



[Immediately after the closing words were pronounced, the follow- 
ing hymn was sung by the choir.] 

FAREWELL. 

The sad hour of parting draws near, 
We turn a fond glance to the past, 
Though water'd by many a tear, 
Joy's sunbeams are over it cast. 
The past! we have shared it with thee, 
With thee all its paths have we trod ; 
Deep gratitude's fount gushes fi-ee, 
For oh! thou didst lead us to God. 

The present ! — oh ! sad is the hour, 
When kindred in spirit must part ; 
But love will resist all its power, 
Nor heart may it sever from heart. 
Yet sadly thy voice do we hear, 
Our souls are dissolved by a spell ; 
They vibrate from hope back to fear — 
While breathing our fond— fare thee well. 

The future! May God guide thy way, 
When viewing his hand in the deep ; 
In climes of the east, be thy stay, 
And guard thee awake or asleep ; 
Thy lips may he touch with his fire, 
The truth to proclaim on each shore — 
While rises our fervent desire, 
To us may he bring thee once more. 



AGREEMENT WITH GOD. 269 



SERMON XI. 



AGREEMENT WITH GOD. 



" Can two walk together, except they be agreed ?"< — Amos iii. 3. 

Order is the first law of Heaven's empire. In the ma- 
terial world, God has secured it by absolute power. In 
the world of mind, his authority has enjoined it. And in 
the next state of human existence, his omnipotent justice 
will enforce it. In the present world, God has simply en- 
joined order ; and if we obey not the great laws of moral 
harmony, we make our own happiness impossible. Let 
us descend from principles to fact, and see that if two are 
not agreed, they cannot walk together. The enjoyments 
of friendship demand a harmony of sentiment ; the clas- 
sifications into political parties, and all efficient party 
movements, whether good or bad, demand it. How can a 
child be properly trained by two parents whose views 
differ on every important point of intellect and moral edu- 
cation % What efficiency can there be in that commer- 
cial house whose partners are agreed about no one of the 
great principles of trade 1 To these statements it might 
be objected, that Christians and infidels united together in 
the reformation of the Church and rejection of Papacy. 
They did ; but it must be remarked that they walked to- 
gether so long as they were agreed in the simple object 
of rejecting the political assumptions of the Roman pon- 
tifT. Their object in this union was, to burst their com- 
mon fetters; but no sooner had this been effected, and 
each resumed his own individuality, than they clashed 

24 



270 SERMON XJ. 

and separated. While agreed, they walked together, but 
no longer. 

The text is part of a solemn reproof addressed to the 
Israelites. They thought, that because they had been 
taken into covenant with God, and had been careful in ob- 
serving the ceremonies of the Mosaic ritual ; God, there- 
fore, walked with them, approved of, and blessed them. 
But the prophet in the name of Jehovah here presents this 
great principle : You must agree with me, and then I will 
walk with you, — the union between us must be a moral 
union. He makes a direct appeal to their judgments and 
consciences in this language, and virtually demands whe- 
ther they were willing to accord with him in feeling, and 
to co-operate with him. If not, he could not approve 
them. "How can two walk," &c. 

To us this is a subject of the highest importance on 
earth. This earthly scene is to be withdrawn, the world 
and its interests are to perish j but the soul and its moral 
affinities, the soul and its desires, the soul and its habits 
formed on earth ; they must abide and survive the wreck 
of matter. We may well ask ourselves : With whom, with 
what party are my moral affinities and alliances — with 
whom am I agreed 1 If you are not agreed with God, you 
cannot walk in his counsels nor beneath his smile. I speak 
to you, children, and ask you : Are you agreed with God 1 
Perhaps you do not understand me. I will let a little girl, 
of whom I have heard, explain to you my meaning.* " I 
speak to you, young man, now in the spring-time of life, 

* She was greatly distressed to find herself a sinner against God. 
Her pious mother had encouraged and promoted her convictions of 
sin. But one morning she came running into the parlour, smiling 
with delight. Her good mother feared she had become a trifler with 
serious things, and exclaimed: "Why, my dear, have you grieved 
away the Spirit of God'?" — "No, my dear mamma, I have made up 
with God.' She understood exactly what God would mean when he 
says : " Be ye reconciled to God." 



AGREEMENT WITH GOD. 271 

at a period in which all around is fascinating and deceiv- 
ing, at a period in which you are about to form associa- 
tions and connexions for life, and, perhaps, to take your 
moral position for eternity ; and urge you, first of all, to 
agree with God, that God may agree with you. How 
mysterious is the indifference with which men regard 
God's approbation or disapprobation ! But it is manifest 
that such indifference cannot be the result of serious re- 
flection. It cannot be that the man who has closely con- 
templated his position in the moral universe, his transient 
existence on earth, and his fearful interest in eternity ; 
has risen from such contemplation, determined to cast 
aside all concern for the favour of God, to make the least 
of his cares the care of his welfare beyond the hour of 
death. No, it is a mysterious, irrational fascination ; it 
is the fearful consequence and proof of apostacy from 
God. My fellow-men, it is not reasonable for you nor 
for me to regard with indifference the question, How 
does God esteem me, and what is my actual position with 
regard to him 1 Is there moral union and harmony, on 
which an eternal friendship may be based 1 This is the 
important question I would assist each one to answer in 
his own case. It is true that the infinite Being conceals 
from us the brightness^ of his presence, and neither daz- 
zles the eye of the body, nor overwhelms the feelings of 
the mind, by presenting himself to our senses in all the 
symbols of his majesty and glory. Yet there are mani- 
festations of his perfections and of his feelings, so clear, 
so indubitable, so palpable, that we may readily de- 
termine whether ours be a state of enmity, of indiffer- 
ence, or of union with our blessed Creator and Sovereign. 
The principle by which this investigation may be made, 
is simple and obvious. You may know as readily your 
sympathy with or aversion to the feelings of an absent 
person as of one present, provided he have made expres- 



272 SERMON XI, 

sion of his feelings on any one point. And again, you 
may as readily test your sympathies or aversions on moral 
subjects as on any other. There is no difficulty in test- 
ing your musical taste and comparing it with another 
person's, by ascertaining your feelings on hearing the 
same piece of music. And if on every experiment you 
find that what pleases one displeases another, you trace 
it to a diversity of taste. Two persons examine that mas- 
terpiece of painting — " the Last Supper," by Leonardo. 
The one admires, the other disapproves ; because one is 
a man of uncultivated taste and unpractised eye, and finds 
no beauty in its faded colours, while the other is capable 
of appreciating its highest beauties. The one is looking 
for dazzling colour, and soon grows fatigued ; the other 
stands enchanted, and retires with reluctance. Here is evi- 
dently no affinity of taste. So it is with landscape. One 
gazes with delight upon the gentle slope, the verdant fields, 
the retired vale, the winding stream ; every object by which 
he is surrounded presenting to his eye new beauties, and 
furnishing fresh delight to the mind ; whilst another per- 
ceives in all this nothing to attract or charm. Here is 
evidently a wide difference in taste. And again, concern- 
ing those whom we see not, but whose sentiments live in 
their works ; we can readily determine whether they and 
we are agreed, and whether we could or could not walk 
together. Some of the hideous images of Egyptian idol- 
atry are now in our museums. These were once the ad- 
miration of thousands as master-works of art. We look 
at them with disgust. Here is a want of intellectual 
agreement. But we have also some of the matchless 
specimens of Grecian taste. We admire these, and feel, 
as we contemplate them, that we should have found the 
highest intellectual gratification in the society of the men 
who made, and of the people who admired those figures. 
But they are more than specimens of art ; they were the 



AGREEMENT WITH GOD. 273 

objects of a blind religious veneration. As we consider 
them in this light, our admiration gives place to disgust 
and contempt ; and we feel an utter antipathy to the cha- 
racter and sentiments of a people whose intellectual ele- 
vation is but a light which throws in deeper shade their 
moral degradation. It is then by contemplating some 
common object, that we test our harmony or want of har- 
mony with others on any subject. If you, my hearers, 
have taken up the subject of religion with an earnestness 
in any measure corresponding to its magnitude ; then you 
have discovered the truth of what I am about to state. If 
any of you have not, I shall entreat a patient attention to 
my statement and proofs. 

My statement then is — that 

Man as unconverted has no moral union with God. He 
sympathizes not with God ; walks not, nor co-operates 
with him. Between God and these his creatures, there is 
no common taste, there are no common principles, no 
common ends nor plans. Let us begin our proof of this, 
by observing God and man in the exercise of love in its 
two branches of complacency and benevolence. God 
loves all excellence. He has told us plainly in his word, 
that to this man will he look, even to him who is of a 
humble and contrite spirit. Humility, faith, penitence, the 
spirit of prayer, these are the features of character in 
God's sight of greatest price. But it is not so with the 
world. Take, then, the two objects ; on the one side, a 
man of true piety, with no other recommendation ; and 
on the other, a man with every thing admirable, but des- 
titute of piety. The one is Lazarus at the rich man's 
gate. Look at him with all the offensiveness of his ex- 
terior ; destitute of wealth, of talents, of friends, a crip- 
ple, a beggar ; and yet he is a man of piety. His views 
of sin are as God's views. His sympathies are with 
God's ; the glory of God is the great object of his love ; 
24* 



274 SERMON XI, ^ 

he rejoices in his low estate, because God has chosen it 
for him ; while others are called to glorify God by action, 
he rejoices that he can do it by suffering in obscurity and 
contempt. Such a man is dear to God. He may live in 
a dungeon or a cave, where you would not deign to visit 
him, yet that man is one of God's jewels, watched over 
by angels, who are eager for the commission to break the 
rude shell that encases it, and bear it away to shine in 
the Saviour's crown. Come, look at this object, and ask 
yourself : Is my heart agreed with God's in this case 1 
Do I love piety wherever I see it 1 Do I love it for its 
own sake 1 God does, and if I do not, then our moral 
tastes do not harmonize, we are not agreed. He would 
pass by thrones and senates to comfort that broken heart, 
and wipe away one tear from that eye ; Gabriel would fly 
from the nether spheres to lift the cup to his thirsting 
lips ; but I would pass by on the other side, and hasten to 
more congenial society — then I am out of harmony with 
heaven. Yes, here is a common object of moral con- 
templation, which can as well determine the state of the 
heart, as a picture, or landscape, or piece of music, can 
determine the tastes of two men. And what of your man 
of taste, polish, science, station, affluence, influence, who 
lives not for God, loves not, fears not, obeys not, praises 
not God 1 He favours you with his society and his 
friendship. You not only admire, you delight in him. 
And even if he utters a few irreverential expressions con- 
cerning religion, and carelessly employs the sacred name 
of Jehovah, that does not alienate your heart \ him you 
admire, in his society is your chief delight. God does 
not admire him, but is angry with the wicked every day. 
The selection of our companions, and the ground of that 
selection, if we would examine it closely, would perfectly 
expose to us our character as it is in the eyes of God. 
If we choose the pious, and say with Israel's sweet singer, 



AGREEMENT WITH GOD. 275 

" in them is all my delight ;" and if we choose them on 
account of their religion, so far we have evidence of k pur 
reconciliation to God. "Hereby," says John, "we know 
that we have passed from death unto life, that we love 
the brethren.'''' We admit that piety is now, in most cases, 
associated with much that is not admirable in itself; and 
yet there is true piety on earth, and enough to test the 
nature and tendency of our affections. In the exercise, 
then, of their complacency, men, while unconverted, select 
different objects from God; in the exercise of their be- 
nevolence they choose not as God chooses. God loves 
all his creatures, because they are capable of happiness, 
and he loves them as capable of happiness. But men 
generally make a very narrow circle for the play of their 
benevolent affections. So far as it is restricted by a want 
of knowledge of other beings, or by an inability to con- 
ceive of and sympathize with the miseries of those we 
have never seen, it is a mark of our finite power, and not 
of our want of holiness. But so far as it arises from 
selfish indifference to the welfare of others, so far we feel 
not as God feels. Is there, moreover, a man in the circle 
of your acquaintance who has no share in your sympa- 
thies 1 God loves that man, not because he may be good, 
or grateful, or obedient, but because he is a man endowed 
with all the moral and immortal sensibilities and capaci- 
ties of human nature. It is often said, no man can love 
his enemies. Then no man can dwell with God, no man 
can wear God's moral image, for that is one of its strik- 
ing features. Suppose a man to have interfered with 
you in your business, to have stood in the way of your 
worldly prosperity, or to have slandered you to others ; 
do you not love him, notwithstanding all this 1 God 
loves him, although he may be still his enemy; and the 
absence of your love to him, proves that you are not 
agreed with God. But we can press this matter still fur- 



276 SERMON XI. 

ther. God not only loves his creatures, all his creatures, 
even his enemies, but with an intensity astonishing to the 
very angels of heaven. And his great desire is for their 
conversion and eternal salvation. Here are then two points 
of comparison — those interests of man for which he has 
the highest regard — and the degree of his regard. To 
testify the extent and strength of his compassion for sin- 
ners, God gave his own Son ; for, it is said, " God so lov- 
ed the world, that he gave his only begotten Son," &c. 
Not only does he love his enemies, but he sacrifices his 
Son to do them good. Who, then, has a moral union 
and affinity with him whose great name is Love 1 And 
for what is this great sacrifice 1 for what the mission of 
the Spirit 1 for what the word of Kevelation! It is all 
to secure the conversion and everlasting salvation of men. 
Upon this great work the whole heart of the blessed God 
is set. But say if, to some of you, this work does not 
often appear absolutely contemptible! Say, if, when 
amidst the gay lovers of pleasure and votaries of fashion, 
you would not have felt a revolting of spirit, a cordial 
contempt for one who should have commenced talking to 
you of the great work of salvation by Jesus Christ, of 
the importance of efforts to turn the attention of this peo- 
ple to the interests of their souls, before it be for ever too 
late 1 But if you have not felt contempt, have you not a 
complete indifference 1 The heart of every one is on 
some object, which seems to him great ; it may be plea- 
sure, profit, honour, ease, in some of their forms. But 
if your supreme desire be not that of extending the 
cause of Christ, you are not agreed with God, for upon 
this one great and glorious plan his heart is supremely 
fixed. For that the Son of God came to sufferings, shame 
and death. Your indifference to this vast object, your 
absorption in the interests of time, your unwillingness to 
make sacrifices for' the salvation of your own or others' 



AGREEMENT WITH GOD. 277 

souls, your little, narrow, selfish schemes, prove that you 
are not agreed with God. 

We may test the condition of our affections by 
another object — the law of God. To him it is dear as 
the happiness of his creatures and the honour of his own 
name. If you find in it one command too ho]y, one re- 
quirement too exact, or one precept superfluous; then 
you esteem it not as God does. I will not now regard 
all that is implied in an aversion to any one precept of the 
divine law. We are here simply concerned to see that 
what God approves, man disapproves. His wisdom, equi- 
ty and goodness framed that law in all its strictness, purity 
and extent. Not a command nor a prohibition of it ex- 
presses else than his heart approves. Even the tremen- 
dous denunciations of it, too, are approved by God. If 
then its requirements please not, if its threatenings seem 
too severe to any one ; with such person God is not 
agreed. Another object tests the heart ; the Son of God 
manifested in human nature. In all the predictions of 
the patriarchs and prophets ; in all the ancient types of 
the Mosaic ritual, and the shadowy representations of the 
former economy, in the mission of John the forerunner, 
we can see that Christ, in all ages, has been as he was 
announced at his baptism — the only begotten and well 
beloved Son of God. This was the testimony borne to 
him on the banks of Jordan by his heavenly Father — this 
is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased ! — in whom 
I am well pleased. I now turn your thoughts to him. 1 
would present him in his humble cradle, in his holy life, 
in his severe reproofs of sin and unbelief, in the moment 
when he chilled the zeal of that self-complacent young 
ruler, who thought himself almost ready for heaven. I 
present him hung up on the ignominious Roman gibbet, 
expiring beneath the contempt and frown of heaven. I 
present him coming in the clouds to judge the world and 



278 SEEMON XI. 

separate men into two great classes, by a principle which 
shall pour contempt on the distinctions that have gratified 
the pride of the human heart ; I ask you in all this — 
"What think you of Christ ? God says — I am well 
pleased. Does your heart respond — he is to me all in 
all 1 God says — I have raised him from the dead and set 
him at my right hand in the heavenly places, far above 
all principality and power, and might and dominion, and 
every name that is named, not only in this world, but also 
in that which is to come ; and have put all things under 
his feet, and given him a name above every name, that at 
the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every 
tongue should confess. Does your heart thus exalt him 1 
If we have a common heart or moral sentiment with Je- 
hovah, then we must love Christ as he does. Wherever 
the gospel is faithfully preached, Jesus Christ is mani- 
festly set forth crucified for man's redemption. And under 
these manifestations, how many are totally indifferent ! 
Some may have been aroused to a sense of their utter 
dependence on Christ, of their immediate and pressing 
need of an interest in his mediation. But how transient 
was the impression ! Yes, in that solemn hour God pre- 
sented to you the great medium of reconciliation to him- 
self, showed you where he could meet you without com- 
promising his justice or his truth, held the promise of 
pardon down from his throne, showed you the covenant 
of peace, signed and sealed in the blood of the Lamb slain 
for the redemption of the world ; in that solemn hour 
God was near in a sense more real, more important, in- 
finitely more important and delightful than human thought 
can conceive. Yes, there, my hearer — and you remember 
perhaps the hour — there your soul weighed earth and 
heaven in the balance of its affections ; there in strong 
debate you canvassed the claims of sin and holiness ; there 
you were almost persuaded to be a Christian j and yet — 



AGREEMENT WITH GOD. 279 

awful thought ! — you there decided that your heart could 
not choose Christ and renounce its idols. Here are then 
objects enough presented for the application of our prin- 
ciple and of ourt est. One is Piety ; considered by God 
the only lovely object on earth ; piety, considered by the 
world actually, practically, daily and hourly, when exhibi- 
ted in life, as either contemptible or as not equal in in- 
terest to intellect, to wealth, to rank, or other adventitious 
appendages to man. God loves, God walks with the men 
of humility, of faith, of prayer, of zeal for his honour and 
kingdom. God loves them for their piety, for that which 
distinguishes them from the world. Men generally either 
disregard them, or esteem them on account of other qua- 
lities and circumstances. We have selected again — the 
Law of God. When God beholds that as an expression 
of his will, as adapted to make the universe of intelligent 
beings one vast, happy community, when he beholds its 
perfect symmetry, its purity, its clear representation of his 
rights and of his creatures' duties ; he must love it. And 
there are a few men who can say with intelligent sincer- 
ity — " the law is good, the commandment holy, just and 
good — how love I thy law, it is my meditation day and 
night." But alas ! there are only a few men of that spirit 
in the human family. 

The majority of men treat the whole law of God with 
such indifference, that they think it not worth their while 
to search into its precepts, either to know what they are, 
or whether they comply with them. We have contem- 
plated also the souls of men in their inappreciable worth, 
to see on the one hand how earnestly God loves them, 
and at how high a price he undertakes their salvation. 
We have seen, on the other hand, that men generally care 
little for the mass of mankind, love not their enemies, and 
care nothing for the undying interests of the soul. Con- 
version, pardon, sanctification, resurrection, justification 



280 SERMON XI. 

at the bar of God; these are matters of moonshine with 
the busy, the gay, the learned, the wise, the mighty world. 
The last of ks concerns is for the promotion of vital, 
soul-transforming, soul-saving religion j the smallest of 
its sacrifices are for it ; the least degree of its sympathies 
is with him who weeps over man's apostacy, who 
prays for the exercise of God's recovering grace, and for 
the mighty energies of the Holy Spirit. 

The last object we presented was — the Bright, the 
Morning Star, the Sun of Righteousness, who has arisen 
on the world with healing in his wings, the meek, the 
spotless Lamb of God, who bore the sins of erring man 
upon his guiltless soul. We have heard the voice of the 
Highest saying — " This is my beloved Son, in whom I 
am well pleased j" and, " What think ye of Christ 1" We 
have heard the world saying, — We may want to fly to him 
in a dying hour; but until forced to do it, we wish not to 
take his yoke upon us ; we have seen neither form nor 
comeliness in him that we should desire him. 

And, my fellow-mortal, is that you, whose heart, 
whose conduct, with so stern an emphasis, have thus re- 
plied'? Then I must carry the subject one step further, 
and ask you — How can two walk together except they be 
agreed ! If it is determined to your own mind that you 
are not agreed with God, how then can he confer upon 
you any of the blessings of his children 1 He may com- 
mand his sun to shine and his rain to descend upon you ; 
for that he does to the evil and unthankful. But does 
that satisfy you 1 Can you live with the creature de- 
prived of the Creator 1 If God but gives you the boun- 
ties of his providence, are you satisfied to live without 
him, without his love, without the peculiar blessings 
which he confers on his children 1 But he cannot confer 
these blessings on those who have neither obeyed his law 
nor become reconciled to him through the gospel. It 



AGREEMENT WITH GOD. 281 

would bring reproach upon his character as moral Gov- 
ernor ; for that character he must sustain as well as that 
of Father. You make it impossible to be blessed. How 
can God delight in you 1 What shall he delight in 1 Your 
external advantages 1 They have been possessed by some 
of the darkest and vilest beings that ever bore the name 
of man. Shall he delight in your intellect, your science, 
your accomplishments 1 Have you more than Satan had 
on the morning of his rebellion ! But they could not 
bribe nor dazzle the perfect eye of Eternal Purity and 
Justice. God delights in the men who, where they have 
disobeyed his law, honour it by all the amends in their 
power ; repentance for their sin, and the acceptance of 
a gratuitous pardon through Jesus Christ. God delights 
in them whose hearts harmonize in sympathy with his 
concerning the great scheme of recovering this lost race 
to allegiance and holiness and heaven. God delights in 
those whose delight is in his Son. Hear how the apostle 
Paul, whom God loved, expresses himself concerning the 
law of God : — I delight in the law of God after the inward 
man, although I find a constant rebellion in part of my 
nature against it. He perpetually took the side of the 
law against himself. Hear the adorations of the heavenly 
host in whom God delights : — Worthy is the Lamb that 
died, they cry, to be exalted thus. Now if your heart 
has, in all these points, no sympathy with God, how can 
he delight inyoul 

How can he take you to heaven 1 The righteous are 
taken there, in order to make their communion with God 
more intimate, perfect and beatific. But communion of 
soul, to be intimate and delightful, must be intelligent and 
cordial upon those points which both parties deem of the 
highest moment. But if you have no such fellowship 
with God here ; what will you do in heaven 1 If you have 
found no delight in the imperfect communion which prayer 

25 



282 SERMON XI. 

affords, what will you do in heaven % It seems to me, my 
fellow men, you pronounce the verdict on your own souls. 
Without a change of heart, there is no advantage in your 
going to heaven. If you go there, it will not be to have 
communion with God and with his Christ. A heaven 
without God, a heaven without the Saviour ! God will 
gather around himself the faithful spirits who have con- 
tended for his honour and interests in the various parts of 
his kingdom. But what will you do among them 1 Will 
you bring the history of your anxiety for worldly good, 
your toils and cares for earthly interests, to entertain the 
sons of light, the valiant champions of truth and ho- 
liness'? God will gather them that have been faith- 
ful to his cause, that they may co-operate with him in 
still greater plans. But what will you do there, who have 
never sympathized with God's cause on earth 1 How can 
two walk together except they be agreed 1 Then there 
is no fellowship with God, no co-operation with him, no 
rapturous enjoyment of his presence, his character, his 
plans, his service. Heaven is constantly thought of under 
the vague impression of a happy spot. But think of a 
circle of friends, pure, refined, intelligent, enjoying exqui- 
site delight in each other's society. Imagine one of ut- 
terly uncongenial taste and habits longing to be admitted 
to that circle under the impression that merely being there 
would make him happy. You know he is in error ; but 
not in one so great as those who think of heaven as a 
happy place, and are anxious to get there, but have no 
anxiety for immediate and perfect preparation for it. 
No ; if you are not agreed with God, he will not bring 
you to his presence, where is fulness of joy, nor to his 
right hand, where are pleasures for evermore. If not 
agreed with God, you cannot dwell for ever with those 
who are. No ; if you are not now walking with God, we 
are preparing for an endless separation : you may occupy 



AGREEMENT WITH GOD. 283 

the same place in the house of God, with his children ; 
you may perform the same external duties ; no human 
eye may be able to discover a difference between you 
and them ; and yet, being unreconciled to God, as time 
rolls onward, and as eternity approaches, you are diverg- 
ing further and further from them. The thought is sol- 
emn. Life is solemn, inasmuch as it is the seed-time of 
eternity ; its threshold, its type, its model. To-day we 
may take you by the hand ; to-day we might lead you to 
the foot of the cross ; to-day we may weep over you, and 
express to you our strong anxieties; to-morrow you may 
die, and we may never, never, never again meet. Pilgrim 
to eternity, if your heart is not right with God, you are 
going to an eternal distance from him and his saints. 
And are you willing to be eternally separated from God 
and the good 1 Suppose you were called to-day to bid 
an everlasting farewell to your pious relatives and friends, 
to Christ and his Church ; would it be without a sigh 1 
And yet you may. I know this is a theme on which few 
occupy their thoughts. But it remains in all its truth and 
awful importance, that under the dispensation of mercy 
administered by the Son of God, men are taking their 
positions for eternity. There are two contending inter- 
ests in the universe. Hell and its legions are ranged on 
the one side — God and his angels are on the other. By 
physical force, the controversy might soon be ended. 
But this is the department where God's greatest glory is 
seen in the enlistment of moral force alone. Oh what a 
theatre of sublime interest is earth, where every thing is 
yet undecided, but rapidly settling for eternity ! The inhab- 
itants of heaven are immutably ranged under the banner 
of the Prince of light. Fallen angels and damned spirits 
look for no reprieve, no change. Dark hate and fell de- 
spair are their chains, But man's fate is yet undecided. 



284 SERMON XI. 

His destiny is pending, and God is now persuading ; for 
moral power consists in persuasion. And generally, it is 
a still, small voice, easily stifled, easily unheeded. Hark ! 
it sounds in thy breast, it comes from thy Father's throne, 
from thy bleeding friend, from the Spirit of life : — Wilt 
thou be agreed with God 1 



ADDRESSES, 

TO PROMOTE THE REVIVAL OP RELIGION; 

Delivered in Surrey Chapel, London. 

The following addresses were delivered by Mr. Kirk at a meet- 
ing in Surrey Chapel, so well known as the scene of the labours of 
Rev. Rowland Hill. This meeting, or rather series of meetings, 
was designed to make the experiment, whether these means, so much 
blessed in America, were adapted only to transatlantic minds. The 
issues were delightful ; multitudes of ministers in the metropolis, 
and through the country, were encouraged to " prove the Lord" in 
the same manner ; and they found, too, that his special blessing was 
awaiting their special labours and prayers. 

These addresses were taken down by a stenographer, and pub- 
lished, together with several sermons ; in fact, all the exercises of 
the week were published in a neat little book, entitled, The Church 
Awakened 5 and had a wide circulation. 

ADDRESS I. 

Rev. James Sherman, pastor of the Church, having made some 
very impressive remarks, Mr. Kirk arose and addressed the assem- 
bly ;— 

My Beloved Christian Friends : 

I suppose few, who have at all reflected upon the sub- 
ject, will be disposed to deny, that immediately after 
death— unless the mind be overwhelmed with the sud- 
denness and the awful nature of the objects which pre- 
sent themselves to our view — -I say few will be disposed 
to deny that the mind will wake up with astonishment — ■ 
astonishment that we can have been living so far from 
God, and astonishment that we have continued so long 
to have viewed every thing through a false medium. 

25* 



286 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

You can take the smallest coin, and, by bringing it near 
to the eye, can conceal the sun from your view. Small 
as is the object, its nearness to the eye prevents you from 
beholding one of greater magnitude at a distance. Here, 
then, is the delusion : " The things which are seen are 
temporal ;" but still they are seen, and the sight of them 
prevents us from seeing those which are eternal. Hence 
God has brought in a new principle, which is faith. This 
looks not at the things which are seen, but at those which 
are unseen ; not to things which are temporal, but to 
those which are eternal; and it presents these unseen 
and eternal objects to our view, not as if regarded through 
an inverted telescope, but clothed in all their grandeur 
and magnitude, and as if constantly before us and around 
us. 

You have heard of our meetings for the revival of 
religion in America ; and I now want to explain to you 
one of the principles on which they are conducted, that 
you may be able to judge for yourselves. 

When we commenced our protracted meetings for a 
revival of religion, some ridiculed us. But God gave us 
strength to persevere. It is a fact which none can dis- 
pute, that every minister of Christ may learn something 
by coming in close contact with the minds of his people. 
It is a grand mistake to wait at home, and expect that our 
people will come to us : we must go out in quest of them, 
and ascertain definitely what is their state of mind, and 
what impressions our sermons produce. We stay at 
home and study theology in our closets, till, by abstract 
meditation, we reach a point intellectually far beyond the 
reach of our people. We learn the meaning of technical 
words and terms, about which our people know compar- 
atively nothing. We think they do j but in this we often 
labour under a great mistake. To us, these words are 
talismans, calling up deep emotions ; to them they are 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 287 

cold and unmeaning. There are men, for instance, who, 
throughout the whole week, have been doing nothing but 
counting pounds, shillings, and pence. They are in no 
way prepared either to listen to or understand their min- 
ister on the Sabbath. They attend, perhaps, in the morn- 
ing, but have not yet had time to disengage themselves 
from the world, and to be prepared for sympathy with the 
things of a spiritual world. The same parties attend in 
the afternoon, a little better prepared. And why 1 Be- 
cause we have been striking upon their flinty hearts all 
the morning, holding up Christ to their view, and saying, 
" Come here, and look." On the very same principle, 
our evening meetings have been best of all : the people's 
hearts becoming all the while better prepared for the re- 
ception of the truth. I found this so strongly the case 
in my own congregation, that I determined that Monday 
should not roll its oblivious wave over the impressions of 
the Sabbath. " God," said I, " has given us one Sabbath, 
one day for meeting ; but why should we not have two V 
We tried it, and my hopes were realized. The impres- 
sions of the Sabbath were revived and deepened in the 
morning, still more in the afternoon, and best of all at 
night. By the aid of some ministers, we held the atten- 
tion of the people continually to the truth ; and we were 
willing to go on to Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Fri- 
day, or Saturday ; or, if God gave us strength, till we 
were called upon to lay our feeble bodies in the dust, if it 
were best. 

To render this principle more obvious, let me suppose 
a case. I want to sell a house, and the price I fix upon 
it is £5000. The price I have fixed upon is large, but not 
more than its real value. The person to whom I have 
offered it for sale knows nothing of its value, having never 
seen it, but he has a very clear idea of the value of £5000. 
I give him a description of it, but he still refuses to pur- 



288 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

chase. I take him and show him the house, leading him 
first into this apartment and then into that ; pointing out 
to him first this embellishment and then that, directing, 
at the same time, his attention to fertile lands upon which 
it is situated, and the beautiful views by which it is sur- 
rounded 5 and I find, by watching his countenance, that 
the .£5000 is rapidly sinking in his estimation, and that 
his desire to possess the house is becoming stronger and 
stronger, until at last he determines to buy it. Just so it 
is with the sinner. You are not to expect him to buy the 
truth without some effort on your part to impress upon 
him a conviction of its intrinsic value. If you want to do 
the sinner good, take him all round the pit of hell j let 
him see the flames of that fire which is never quenched ; 
let him hear the shrieks and groans of those condemned 
criminals who are for ever shut up in the regions of dark- 
ness and despair; and when he has seen this, say, "Im- 
mortal man, we want to get you out of that state of torpor 
in which you have so long lain. It is not for the sake 
merely of terrifying you, but to lead you to see things 
as you will one day see them in the light of another 
world." Take him all round the battlements of Zion, the 
holy city, the city of our God ; let him tell her towers ; 
let him mark herr bulwarks ; let him consider her palaces ; 
let him hear the celestial music which warbles upon the 
tongues of the heavenly choir ; and then say, " Consider, 
immortal man, at what a price all this has been pur- 
chased — the price of the Saviour's blood— and let the 
world, which has so long engrossed your thoughts and 
affections, and so long dazzled you with the false glare 
of its splendour, go, and go for ever." Take him all 
round the cross of Christ ; show him the dignity of the 
mighty Sufferer ; let him see those expiring throes at 
which all nature was convulsed. The truth is God's in- 
strument of conversion j but the truth, to be effective, 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 289 

must be closely, solemnly, and continuously the object 
of thought. We see the mind of an individual serious on 
Sunday, less so on Monday, and still less so on Tuesday. 
The impressions of truth, like the waves of a retiring tide, 
are every day more and more feeble. Say to him then, 
" We want you to see these things on Monday as you 
saw them on Sunday ; and we think if you saw that lovely 
face, and those bleeding hands, which were stretched 
upon the cross, you would be led to feel the awfulness of 
your condition, and the necessity of your immediately 
escaping with your life. We want not by this, to make 
the truth more perfect, but to cause you to feel more of 
its power ; and if Sunday is not sufficient for this pur- 
pose, let us have Monday, and Tuesday, yea, the whole 
week, rather than suffer the things that are temporal to 
stand in the way of those that are eternal." This is what 
I call the Philosophy of Kevivals ; this is the principle 
upon which our protracted meetings have been held in 
America — the principle of constantly holding the minds 
of the people fixed upon the truth. As the foolish ostrich, 
when pursued, buries his head in the sand, and supposes 
his body is concealed ; so unconverted sinners fly from the 
pursuit of truth, and endeavour to conceal themselves in 
a crowd of worldly enjoyments and pursuits, but, if we 
would be faithful to our trust, we must go forth and drag 
them from their hiding place, and throw around them the 
blaze of truth with such a dazzling splendour as they 
shall be unable to withstand. 

Oh, I have felt in this sacred place, this morning, so 
much of the preciousness of Jesus to my soul, and my 
heart has so panted with new desires to serve him, that 
no language could give adequate utterance to my feel- 
ings ! God has opened to my view such a desire for his 
glory as for a long time I have not felt. And many, I 
presume, can testify the same. I think the Spirit of God 



290 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

is beginning to move on the hearts of his people in this 
place ; and my reasons for thinking so are two, First, 
There has been a little increase in the spirit of prayer ; 
and, secondly, God has granted an answer to these pray- 
ers in the manifestation of his presence. If a little prayer 
will bring down such joy into the hearts of his people, 
what are we to expect when he comes down in the pleni- 
tude of his influence, in answer to the united and fervent 
prayers of his people ! 

I remarked, last night, on the coming of the Spirit, 
and I believe we are living in the days predicted in the 
third chapter and the first and second verses of the pro- 
phecies of Malachi : " Behold, I will send my Messenger, 
and he shall prepare the way before me ; and the Lord, 
whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even 
the Messenger of the Covenant, whom ye delight in : be- 
hold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who 
may abide the day of his coming ! and who shall stand 
when he appeareth % for he is like a refiner's fire, and like 
fullers' soap. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of 
silver ; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge 
them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the 
Lord an offering in righteousness." I may remark, here, 
that some of these prophecies have a double, or even a 
threefold signification ', and that this particular prophecy 
has had its fulfilment in the person of John the Baptist, as 
also at the day of Pentecost. But our blessed Lord has 
told us, that " the kingdom of God cometh not with ob- 
servation j" and we believe that the kingdom of God will 
come without observation into your hearts and into mine ; 
and we further believe that the messengers, whom the 
Lord now sends to prepare the way before him, are his 
faithful ministers, deeply and anxiously concerned to ex- 
tend the boundaries of the Redeemer's kingdom. It is 
now fulfilled in the preachers of the gospel, — in my dear 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 291 

brother, the pastor of this church, clothed with the spirit 
and with the power of John the Baptist, and desirous of 
recovering the backsliding hearts of his people to holi- 
ness and peace. I havo no time to speak here upon this 
subject ; but I found a dear brother in a different part of 
the country, whose heart God has affected in the same 
way; and I trust there are many upon whose minds the 
Spirit of God has begun to work. " Behold, I will send 
my Messenger before me," &c. That is just what we 
want. "Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. 
But who shall abide the day of his coming 1 and who 
shall stand when he appeareth V Oh, this is a solemn, a 
serious time, when God's servants come to search the 
hearts of his people ! I ask every individual present : 
"My brother, my sister in Christ, do you feel that the 
Spirit of God, through the instrumentality of his minis- 
ters, is removing your past sins from your burdened con- 
sciences! is causing you to put away the idols from 
your hearts 1 and to make an unreserved surrender of 
yourself to his service 1" Oh, this is the work of the 
Spirit of God ! No power, save the almighty energies of 
the Spirit, could ever produce such a glorious effect. 

Let us, dear brethren, remark the peculiarity of the 
dispensation under which we live. God has required 
great importunity on our part as a prerequisite to the be- 
stowment of the blessing ; and he has left on record many 
illustrious examples of successful importunity in prayer. 
One is the case of Jacob, who wrestled with the angel 
tili the break of day, and when remonstrated with, said, 
"I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." From his 
importunity on this occasion, and from the prevalence of 
his prayer, his name was changed to that of Israel, which 
virtually signifies, a man of power with God. The men 
who were made the honoured instruments of giving free- 
dom to the slaves, might be said to be men of power ? 



292 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

having had power with their sovereign and with their 
country ; hut Jacob, afterwards called Israel, stands pre- 
eminently entitled to this appellation, for it is said by Je- 
hovah himself, " Thy name shall no more be called Jacob, 
but Israel : for as a prince hast thou power with God and 
with men, and hast prevailed." He takes hold of the con- 
descending covenant promises, and determines to keep 
God to his word, and by his importunity, he prevails. 

A minister once said — I have often been struck w T ith 
the beauty and force of the illustration — " There are two 
kinds of prayers to be seen among professing Christians, 
which may be illustrated thus. A kind and affectionate 
mother has left her children in an adjoining room to amuse 
themselves with play. By and by, hearing one of them 
cry, she starts up and listens at the door, but finds by the 
well-known tones of their voices, that it is only pretence. 
She resumes her seat ; but shortly hears notes of real 
distress again proceeding from the apartment, and, ex- 
claiming, ' My child ! My child /' she rushes at once to 
its assistance." So it is in the Church. Some men stand 
up to pray ; but when God listens, he finds that they are 
only mocking him in their prayers. By and by he hears 
another cry : he listens again, and finds that it proceeds 
from one of his broken-hearted children ; and true to his 
promise, " Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will 
answer thee," he rushes at once to his aid. If there is a 
broken-hearted child in this assembly this morning, let 
him take encouragement from this representation of God's 
regard for his dear children. " Call upon me in the day 
of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify 
me." 

I have been led to these remarks, dear brethren, with 
the view of showing the value and importance of impor- 
tunity in prayer. It is a wise and a benevolent arrange- 
ment upon the part of Jehovah, that the enjoyment of the 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 293 

blessings we seek should be connected with importunate 
prayer. 

One reason for requiring this importunity is, that the 
Church is often asking for blessings which she is in no 
way prepared to receive. 

A second reason for this importunity is, that the 
Church is often unwilling to do something which God re- 
quires to be done in order to the attainment of the bless- 
ing. The Church is praying for the Spirit ; but is not 
doing, in other respects, what God has required. The 
farmer ploughs his field, and then casts in his seed, and 
waits for the growth and maturity of the crop. Oh, there 
is much to be learned by Christians in the art of doing 
good ! Whilst you are waiting for the Spirit, and praying 
for the Spirit, you must be seeking for opportunities of 
casting in the seed of the word. 

A third, and the last reason we shall mention, is, that 
the more you pray for the blessing you need, the greater 
will be your desire for it. The more you hold converse 
with God, pleading for the salvation of immortal souls, 
the more impressively will you see their value, and the 
more intense will be your desires for their conversion. 
Have you come with this desire this morning 1 Is it 
your concern that the Spirit of God should be poured out 
upon the hearts of poor sinners 1 Learn a lesson from 
the husbandman. Go forth, Christians ! plough up the 
fallow ground of your immediate neighbourhoods; tell 
sinners of their delusion, guilt, and danger ; and bring 
them here to listen to the word. Oh, sons and daughters 
of Israel, pray for the dews of heaven to descend upon 
the Church, for the south wind to blow upon the garden 
of the Lord, that it may be fruitful, and filled with the 
plants of life ! 



26 



ADDRESS II. 

Dear Christian Friends : 

I believe we are just as accountable for a spiritual fa- 
mine, as we are for a famine of daily bread occurring by 
our neglect. If, in the latter case, we had omitted to do 
all, nay, if we had neglected to do any part of that which 
God had appointed by us to do, we should have been so 
far guilty ; so far the authors of our own destitution. 
And I believe that is just as awful a perversion in the 
Church as it would be in the world, for men to allege the 
sovereignty of God as a reason for disconnecting the 
end with the appointed means. If a farmer were to say, 
" I have no power to produce grain or any other crop in 
my fields ; this must be the work of God ; he must send 
the showers from heaven ) he must scatter abroad the ge- 
nial rays of the sun ; he must cause the early and the 
latter rain to descend ; he must protect the seed when 
cast into the ground, and the tender blade when it first 
appears ; he must watch over it and ripen it to maturity ; 
or a single grain will never grow ;" — If he should say 
this, we should at once reply, " All very true : this is a 
position which none will dispute." But if the farmer 
should therefore say, " If God has decreed that barley 
shall grow in this field, and that wheat shall grow in that, 
grow it will, and there is no need for my labour, and anx- 
iety, and toil :" and if he should act upon this principle, 
and neither plough the ground, nor sow the seed, and the 
land should be filled with famine, the folly and the wick- 
edness would rest with man. The kingdom of God would 
go on ; there would be no interference with the harmony 
of his plans or his purposes ; but the people having ne- 
glected the appointed means of safety, would die. It is 



296 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

surprising how men have reasoned the sovereignty of 
God out of the natural, and confined it to the spiritual 
world. 

A famine of bread and of water, my dear Christian 
friends, is an awful thing ; but what is this to a famine of 
the word of God % A man, with a large family, who lived 
in the midst of one of those spiritual dearths, where the 
word has no power ; where there is no solemn exhibition 
of the truth ; no weeping minister ; no hearts bleeding 
with compassion for poor sinners, went to one of the dea- 
cons, and said, " I can endure this no longer ; the min- 
ister does not wield the sword of the Spirit in power ; 
the weapons of the spiritual warfare do not prove them- 
selves mighty through God to the pulling down of Sa- 
tan's strong holds. I see souls dying around me daily : 
my own family are growing up in sin for want of the 
power of the Spirit of God on their hearts; we must 
have a revival of religion." The old deacon listened 
with great attention; and then looking very calm and 
placid, said, " My dear brother, we shall have a revival, if 
God has decreed we shall have it ; but if it be man's re- 
vival, it will do no good." The young man replied, 
" My dear father, no man is more diligent in his worldly 
business than you are, and yet no man believes more 
firmly in the Divine decrees. Now I want to know whe- 
ther you stop your ploughman ; or whether you refuse to 
put your money into the bank, upon this principle 1 If 
God refuses to bless your exertions you will have no 
crop ; and if he should withhold his care of your money, 
the bank will be no place of security. In this mode of 
reasoning, therefore, you have been betraying the world- 
liness and wickedness of your heart. You dare not trust 
the power nor the goodness of God in reference to tem- 
poral good, where your own diligence can secure it ; but 
in reference to the concerns of immortal souls, you shel- 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 297 

ter yourself behind the decrees of God, and you wickedly 
refuse to employ the means which he has directed in his 
word. In the natural world the sovereignty of God is no 
bar to your exertions \ but in the spiritu al world it must 
be an extinguisher upon every effort." That God saves 
the soul is true j and that the decrees of God are abso- 
lute, eternal, and immutable, we do not deny. His de- 
crees cover every thing j they reach from the movements 
of those vast orbs which roll through the regions of im- 
mensity, to the disposal of the minutest particle of mat- 
ter. His decrees extend to the movement of my hand at 
this moment. There is not a spoke in the smallest wheel 
of the immense machinery but was seen by God from all 
eternity. There is nothing done without God. You 
plough up your ground, and you put your wheat in the 
field, under the surveillance of the God of heaven. His 
decrees, I repeat, extend to every thing ; and I believe 
this as firmly as any man in existence can believe it. I 
speak not, then, against the decrees of God j but against 
that wicked inference which is drawn from them, that man 
is not a responsible and accountable agent. I bless God, 
that I never yet was able to quiet my conscience with 
such theology. Wo upon the preaching which suffers 
sinners to go down to hell, soothed with the idea that they 
were irresponsible beings. We, saints or sinners, are not 
straitened in God. The idea that man is not responsible 
for his want of holiness, is cherished by the indolent, and 
cold, and selfish, in the Church. I repeat it, I am not 
straitened in God. I believe, in reference to the inhabit- 
ants of London, in reference to the congregation now 
assembled in Surrey chapel, I believe that God is more 
willing to give us spiritual blessings than temporal. God 
thinks infinitely more of his spiritual garden, the Church, 
than he does of the fields of the husbandman or of the 
crops upon the hills. "If ye being evil," says God, 

26* 



298 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

" know how to give good gifts to your children, how 
much more shall your heavenly Father give his Holy Spi- 
rit to them that ask him V You did not give your child, 
whom you dearly love, a stone when he asked you for 
hread \ nor a scorpion when he asked you for fish. You 
gave him what he asked. "How much more, shall your 
heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them who ask 
himV' This one doctrine, then, rolls the whole guilt of 
neglecting perishing sinners upon the Church. The 
Church has not asked for the Holy Ghost as she ought. 
I have touched upon this topic this morning to bring 
down the awful guilt upon my own soul, and to do the 
same with you. I would fain expand this important sub- 
ject ; but it has already been keeping me too long from 
the topic on which I am anxious to dwell. It is presented 
to us in Mich. vi. 2 : 

" Hear, mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye 
strong foundations of the earth : for the Lord hath a 
controversy with his people, and he will plead with Is- 
rael." 

" The Lord hath a controversy with his people." And 
do you ask me with whom % He has a controversy with 
me ; and he has a controversy with every one of his min- 
isters who is not willing to labour, and, if necessary, to 
die for souls. I feel painfully that God has a controversy 
with me. I have no right to look upon dying souls, stand- 
ing at the open mouth of the pit of hell, with such feel- 
ings of heart as I do. God has a controversy with his 
ministers. Where are we to look for that bleeding com- 
passion of heart which seeks out sinners, weeps over 
them, and beseeches and entreats them to fly to Christ 1 
And you, my Christian friends, God has a controversy 
with you. And I am come to plead this controversy, and 
to have it settled. There is a solemn declaration in the 
prophecies of Amos, " that two cannot walk together ex- 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 299 

cept they be agreed." O, if God be not with us this 
morning, and if we are not agreed with him, we shall be 
talking to no purpose j our words will be without power. 
But if God be with us, we shall hear him saying, " Fear 
not, thou worm Jacob, for I will make thee a sharp thresh- 
ing instrument, and thou shalt thresh the mountains and 
beat them small, and make the hills as chaff." He can 
give such power to our lips that we shall make London 
tremble. O, when the heralds of the God of Israel go 
before his face, " he will smite the oaks of Bashan ; and 
all the high mountains and the hills that are lifted up 
shall be brought low ; and the loftiness of man shall be 
bowed down, and the haughtiness of man shall be made 
low; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." 
But it is a dreadful thing to have an unsettled controversy 
with God ; for two cannot walk together except they be 



My Christian friends, I am anxious to have this con- 
troversy settled ; and I am come this morning, I say, to 
plead the Lord's cause ; I commence with you, covenant 
people of God, and I beseech you never to look up to us 
as gods ; never to suppose that we can do God's work 
without you ; never to imagine that any success will at- 
tend our exertions without your prayers : for if you do, 
God will utterly confound us before your face. Oh, 
brethren, idolize not man — idolize none of God's minis- 
ters ; but get down into the dust and honour God. By 
our meetings in this place we aim to make a movement 
in the Church, and in the world, at which hell shall trem- 
ble. And our plan is simple : prayer to God for the de- 
scent of the Holy Ghost, and the manifestation of the 
truth to every man's conscience. It is vital piety, and 
not a great machinery, that we need for this contest. We 
must not go forth with Saul's heavy and cumbrous ar- 
mour, but with the sling and pebbles, by which the Goli- 



300 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

aths of iniquity are to be smitten to the ground. And do 
you think this can be done'? It can j but you must first 
settle your controversy with God. 

In the majority of those meetings which have been 
in America for the revival of religion, the first mark of 
the descent of the Holy Ghost was, the people of God 
confessing their sins, bewailing their unfaithfulness, and 
suing for pardon. And the moment the people of God 
became humbled in the dust, and the ministers came for- 
ward personally and confessed their sins, sinners began 
to awake, and to cry for mercy. They said, " It is time 
that we awake ; for if the righteous shall scarcely escape, 
where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear V' And 
it will be just so with you. If you deeply feel what a 
dreadful thing sin against God is, you will be humbled, 
and be led to sue for pardon j and it is just in proportion 
as you Christians, or we ministers, get this feeling, that 
we shall know how to talk to other men upon the awful 
depravity and wickedness of their hearts. But, till this 
controversy with God is settled, we can do no more than 
open our mouths in a faint whisper for him. The Church 
gets into captivity now, just as the Church of old : and 
at such seasons we cannot sing one of the songs of the 
Lord in a strange land ; we cannot open our mouths for 
God. Oh, the dreadfulness of an unsettled controversy ! 

Every Christian with an unsettled controversy is an 
Achan in the camp. And what a dreadful character is 
this ! The whole camp of Israel must be impeded in their 
march from this one man having taken the Babylonish gar- 
ment and the wedge of gold, which was part of the ac- 
cursed spoil. There may be an Achan here this morn- 
ing ; one who, from practices indulged in secret, or one 
who from a careless disregard of prayer or other known 
duties, is now staying the descent of the Spirit upon this 
congregation, and impeding the march of God's Israel to 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 301 

triumph. 0, my brethren, take care, take care, I beseech 
you, that you be not placed in this awful position ; that 
you be not an Achan in God's camp j that you have not 
coveted the Babylonish garment and the wedge of gold, 
or hid them in your tent j that you are not hugging to 
your bosom at this moment that which God has pro- 
nounced accursed. say, in all the sincerity of your 
hearts, "Lord, search me, and know my heart ; try me, 
and know my thoughts j" tell me what is this contro- 
versy which thou hast with me, and let it now be settled. 
If it be a right arm-, cut it off; if it be a right eye, pluck 
it out ; if it be the world that is dear to me, mortify me 
to it j or, if it be prayer that is neglected, stir me up in 
that duty. Lord, what is this controversy with me 1 
What wedge of gold, what Babylonish garment, lies hid- 
den here, that thou canst not bless me 1 Let me die rather 
than be an Achan to impede the march of thine Israel. 

Brethren, a revival of religion is a personal matter. As 
I remarked yesterday, " The kingdom of God cometh not 
with observation." If you settle this controversy, how- 
ever, and if you are earnest in prayer, the Lord will 
come with power into your hearts. I know not how you 
may have backslidden from God ; I know not what may 
have been your besetting sins ; I know not in the discharge 
of what duties you may have been deficient : that is a 
personal matter — it rests between God and your own soul ; 
but this I do know, that you must be humbled over your 
backslidings, repent of your sins, and return to the dis- 
charge of your duties, before this controversy between 
God and you can be settled. If this controversy should 
be with me, and if my cold heart should prevent the de- 
scent of the Holy Ghost, I pray God it may be settled. 
O, brethren, let there be deep searchings of heart ! 

But what is this controversy which God has with his 
people 1 I might hererun over a list of a thousand things, 



302 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

and thereby show you the backsliding of heart and life to 
which the people of God are sometimes led ; but I shall 
confine myself this morning to one point alone. It is 
said in the New Testament, " When the Son of Man 
cometh, shall he find faith in the earth V We tell it to the 
city of London, we tell it to Britain, we tell it to all the 
world, that the Son of Man is about to come on the earth ; 
not as the Millenarians teach, to assume a temporal au- 
thority, or to establish a personal reign ; but that he is 
about to come in the power of his Spirit, to take posses- 
sion of the hearts of thousands, and we hope millions of 
our fellow-men, and we take shame to ourselves that his 
coming has been so long delayed for want of our fervent 
and united prayers. But suppose he does come ; have 
you faith 1 Shall you be ready to receive him ? If 
not, God has a controversy with you ; for you are bound 
to have faith, which is nothing more than confidence in 
God, and believing what he says, and yet you dishonour 
him by your unbelief. I take the case of the parent as an 
illustration of what I mean. God says to that father, and 
to that mother, " That child of yours is hanging over the 
pit of hell, and unless you take care, will soon be writhing 
in the agony of eternal torments." And yet you will not 
believe him. You bow the knee at the family altar, and 
you pour out your words ; but there is no agonizing or 
wrestling with God for your child. I suppose the child 
to be exceedingly ill, Your anxiety now is all alive. You 
examine his pulse ; you observe the painful symptoms of 
disease ; and you send with great haste for the physician. 
And why 1 Because you have faith in the disease ; faith 
in the danger of the child ; and faith in the skill of the 
physician. Oh, what anxiety, what use of the appointed 
means of recovery, is visible here ! You sit up whole 
nights, watching by the bed of your darling child j you 
wait with an intenseness of desire for the hour at which 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 303 

the physician shall return ; and if he delays but a few 
moments behind the appointed time, your feelings rise 
almost to agony. And why is it that you feel and act 
thus 1 Because you believe. Make the application of 
this, my dear brethren. Do you believe your child is an 
enemy to the great God 1 Do you believe that the whole 
head is sick, and the whole heart faint 1 Do you believe 
that without the appointed remedy he must die, and die 
eternally 1 And have you sent for the great Physician ; 
and are you listening at the door, or watching his coun- 
tenance, to see if you can discover any hope of recovery] 
Oh, there is balm in Gilead ; there is a physician there ; 
and yet for want of faith your child is not healed. Go, 
like the Syrophoenician Avoman to our Lord, and say, 
" My daughter, my daughter, is sore vexed with a devil. 
Lord, help me." Is there a man here who says that this 
is extravagant"? I tell that man that he gives the lie to 
the whole Bible. I believe in the warning and burning 
truths of the Bible ; and I delight to present them to my 
hearers, because I know we all need to be aroused. Just 
take that one example, dear brethren, the example of 
unbelief presented in your indifference about the souls of 
your children ; and begin to plead with God in earnest, 
and to give him no rest until he shall come and heal. 

I would not thus expand this subject, but I want to 
lead you to settle your controversy with God. Why am 
I so cold, so indifferent about the salvation of souls, so 
unlike the Son of God 1 Why are the children of a king 
so lean] Why this want of spiritual health 1 Why this 
coldness in prayer, this sluggishness in duty, this back- 
wardness in doing God's work ] 0, my brother, my sis- 
ter, settle your personal controversy with God ; and let 
Christ have delight in coming to his garden and eating his 
pleasant fruit. Come to the altar of God now, and plead 
down the blessing. If you all settle your controversy 



304- ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE REVIVALS. 

with God ; if you all become reconciled with his dear 
Son ; if you all obtain the witness of God's Spirit with 
your spirit, what a blessed meeting this will have been ! 
If we have been up to the mount, and have held converse 
with our Father, then our faces will shine as the face of 
Moses, the beauty of which we shall be unable to conceal 
from the world. 

But suppose God should favour us with a revival of 
religion, what will be its effect upon the world 1 I will 
tell you. A minister once said, " The Church of God is 
like a column of air. When the air becomes rarified it 
rises up, and other air from around rushes in to supply 
its place." Just so is it with the Church. The moment 
the Church of God rises in spiritual warmth toward 
heaven, it rises, and rises, as a cloud, and it carries others 
along with it. The warm air has ascended; and the 
dense atmosphere has rushed to supply its place. Chris- 
tians having been aroused to a sense of their responsibili- 
ties and privileges, sinners flock around, witnessing the 
effect which has been produced. Are there any such 
present this morning'? Sinners, God has a controversy 
with you. Oh, I beseech you, I beseech you, as though 
God did beseech by me — I beseech you in Christ's stead 
— as though the blessed Jesus stood where I now stand — 
I beseech you, " Be ye reconciled to God !" O sinners, 
delay not one moment ; "tarry not in all the plain j" go 
to God at once by Jesus Christ. 



ADDRESS III. 

Christian Friends: 

It is a very interesting sight, as your beloved pastor 
has remarked, to see at this hour of the day, and that, 
too, on one of the busiest days of the week, so many per- 
sons assembled together for the purpose of prayer ; and 
it is no small responsibility upon him who has undertaken 
to guide the minds of this assembly. I feel no hesitation, 
my beloved brethren, in holding up to you, and all my 
fellow Christians, this one subject — the desirableness 
there is that the eternal Spirit, the almighty Agent of 
conversion and sanctification, proceeding from the Father 
and the^Son, should come into every heart in this assem- 
bly ; and the desirableness there is that this eternal Spirit 
should come down in his quickening and sanctifying in- 
fluences on all our Churches. I am impressed with the 
importance, and with the solemn duty, of urging upon this 
congregation the necessity of prayer for the Holy Ghost 
to descend upon them, upon every Church of Christ, and 
upon the whole race of man. 

Our subject, then, is the desirableness of prayer for the 
outpouring of the Spirit. 

• Prayer includes two sentiments — the heart's deep 
feeling of its necessities, and an assured confidence that 
God will give the blessings sought. The first of these 
is spiritual desire, the second is faith. 

Let holy desires be enkindled in our hearts. You 
have heard that when the disciples met to wait for the 
promise of the Father, they were all of one accord. 
Their minds were set upon some great object ; they 
were in expectation of some great event, some mighty 

27 



306 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

resting of the Spirit of God upon the souls of his peo- 
ple. Hence they went as humble suppliants, and waited 
on God till the blessing came. 

A respected brother of a different denomination, (Mr. 
Stevenson,) has said that we are all agreed about some- 
thing. I bless God that we are; and when we get to 
heaven we shall be agreed about every thing. We shall 
be of one accord. There is one great subject that would 
make one vast prayer-meeting of the whole Church of 
God, and that one subject is the necessity and the desira- 
bleness of the descent of the Holy Ghost, and there is 
none but needs to be baptized with the Holy Ghost ; and 
my humble endeavour is now, under the blessing of God, 
to increase the sense of that want in the hearts of all his 
people. May we now enjoy the sense of his presence ! 

We want the Holy Ghost ; and if there is desire 
enough, and faith enough, we shall receive the Holy 
Ghost. But what will be the influence of the Spirit of 
God upon our hearts when he does come % I will not 
run over all the wide field, but will select here and there a 
few solitary proofs of his presence. 

And, First, If the Spirit of God descend upon this 
assembly, we shall find what has been the cause of his 
absence. 

Blessed be God, we have felt his power at the meet- 
ing just held in Mr. Sherman's house, and we desire him 
to visit us again. When he comes, it is not to convince 
us of general truths, but of that which concerns us per- 
sonally. He tells us what is the cause of his absence ; 
he points out the particular sins of which we have been 
guilty ; he reveals the nature and causes of our back- 
sliding from God j he stamps an individuality upon our 
particular failings and short-comings j he holds up the 
glass to our eyes, and makes us look at ourselves as we 
really are. 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 307 

Religion, we know, is a personal matter ; and when 
the Spirit of God is come, the " family of the house of 
David shall mourn apart, and their wives apart ; the fam- 
ily of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart ; 
the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives 
apart ; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart ; 
all the families that remain, every family apart, and their 
wives apart." Such is the work of the Spirit of God. 
He comes to take us apart, to show us individually the 
deformity of our backslidings, to lead us to mourn over 
th«m apart, and to constrain us to plead anew for sancti- 
fying grace. This personal influence we need that we 
may see our individual sins. O ! that he may show us 
why we were so dead, why our hearts did not break un- 
der the power of his word ; why we could be content to 
live at such a distance from him ; why we were satisfied 
when doing so little for his cause ! No individual man 
can tell you, but the Holy GJiost can. He can whisper 
to your conscience, and show you where the evil lies. 
Pray for him to come, then, and show you why you are 
so cold, why you have no more delight in the service of 
Jesus Christ, no more devotedness to him. Pray for him 
to come upon you as the Spirit of life. Pray for him to 
come and convince the world of sin, and the Church of 
her backslidings from God. The Church is in captivity, 
and she must be made to break the yoke of her thral- 
dom, and stand forth in the eyes of the world invested 
with that glorious freedom to which she is entitled, by 
virtue of the union she sustains to her great Head. 

Secondly, If the Spirit of God descends upon this as- 
sembly, he will shed abroad the love of Christ in your 
hearts. 

How sweet is the love of Christ ! How desirable to 
have the love of Christ shed abroad in our hearts by the 
Holy Ghost, which he has given to us ! To be like 



308 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

Christ, to love Christ ; this is heaven begun ! And we 
have heaven in our souls, and the enjoyment of heaven 
in prospect, just in proportion as we have love to Christ, 
and likeness to his image. But we want more love to 
Christ, and we must have more likeness to Christ. And 
how is this to be obtained % No sermon can do it ; even 
prayer itself will not do it ; but prayer will do it by 
bringing down the Spirit. Let us, then, put ourselves in 
a prayerful and waiting posture for the coming of the 
Holy Ghost! 

" I will spread the sail, 
Blow thou the breeze, and waft me to my home." 

If God calls men to be the partakers of his grace, and if 
the love of Christ is shed abroad in their hearts, they will 
be willing to wear out in his service. The love of Christ 
constrains them. They are willing to do any thing for 
Christ so long as he gives them strength. 

We want more of this love. We must not be so self- 
ish in our religious feelings. We must have the Spirit 
of God as a spirit of compassion to perishing sinners. If 
we saw the actual condition of sinners, their deep depra- 
vity and guilt, their hideous deformity in the sight of 
God, we should not be able to rest by day or by night. 
We want the Holy Ghost to show us their actual condi- 
tion ; to show us how hateful they are in God's sight $ 
and to show us upon what a fearful precipice they stand. 
No man can show us ; nothing but the Spirit of God can 
do this. But when he begins to exhibit the awful danger 
of sinners, and the certainty of their destruction, the 
Church is aroused from her stupor, and puts up her 
prayers, and combines her efforts on their behalf. How 
tenderly did the Apostle Paul feel, when he said, " My 
conscience beareth me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I 
have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart ,* 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 309 

for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ 
for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh !" 
How earnest, how intense, was his desire for the salva- 
tion of his brethren ! And such is the effect of the love 
of Christ wherever it is possessed. It is a love that 
works ; it is a love that warms ; it is a love that instructs ; 
it is a love that beseeches ; it is a love that prays for, 
that bleeds for, and that dies for poor sinners, if called to 
it by the providence of God. If this love for Christ dwelt 
in the hearts of professing Christians as it ought ; if it 
existed in our churches to the extent we have reason to 
believe that it should ; how differently would they act ! 
Oh, if we possessed this love, there is not a street in 
London, there is not an alley, nor a lane, in which the 
voice of tearful and warning expostulation would not be 
heard. We should seek out sinners, we should weep 
over them ; we should warn them, and " compel them to 
come in." Oh, there is too little sympathy with the 
compassion of Christ in our churches 5 they are luke- 
warm, they are lifeless and dead. Zion is at ease j and 
you, her members, are willing to go home to your lovely 
families, to your well-furnished houses, to your cheerful 
fire-sides, and to your well-spread tables, and see your 
neighbours going to hell, without so much as an effort to 
effect their escape. When I say you, I mean myself. O 
this insensible heart ! how little does it weep over sin- 
ners ! how little does it bleed for their woes ! And is it 
better with you \ Oh, to have the compassionate mind 
that was in Christ ! The want of this makes us feel our 
want of the Holy Ghost. 

Thirdly, If the Holy Ghost should come as we desire 
and have prayed for, I will tell you how he will come, — 
Sinners will flock to your sanctuaries until you have not 
sufficient room to hold them. 

How different is the preaching of ministers in a time 
27* 



310 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

of revival ! The world hears of the change, and comes 
to listen to them. The world says, " This is the kind of 
preaching that will do us good." Yes; and they are 
better judges of this matter than some of you may be 
ready to think. I have heard men during a time of revi- 
val, who, by the strength of their language, and frequency 
of their appeals, have so galled and offended the impeni- 
tent, that they have gone out, condemning the preachers, 
and saying that they would never come again ; but these 
same persons have been found in attendance on the next 
sermon. Whether they love or hate the preaching, they 
will come to hear it ; and God will humble their hearts, 
make them bow down to truth, and bring them to himself. 
The apostle Paul said, " Brethren, pray for us, pray that 
the word of the Lord may have free course and be glori- 
fied ;" and we, his uninspired successors, say, pray for 
us, that we may be faithful to our trust, and successful in 
our work. We cannot do without your prayers. The 
arduous nature of our work, and the opposition we have 
to encounter, demand your prayers. Pray for your min- 
ister, brethren j and pray for us, that we may have the 
Holy Ghost in our hearts ; and shed abroad the spirit of 
prayer. 

The melancholy termination of every revival has been 
caused by the withdrawal of divine influence, and that by 
the sins of the Church. The efforts at first were great, 
and great good has been effected. But in a short time 
there has been lukewarmness of heart, and they have 
again settled down upon their lees. I hope there will be 
such a revival of religion here as will continue to the end 
of time. We do not want periodical revivals ; but we 
want a revival for this year, for the next, and for all the 
periods of future time, to continue till the blast of the 
archangel's trump is heard. To secure this we want the 
Spirit of God as a spirit of prayer. As Jacob, who wrestled 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 311 

with the angel, "till the morning light," we must say, "I 
will not let thee go except thou bless me." And this 
must be not the transient impulse of the heart merely, but 
it must be one continued and persevering determination. 
If a revival should be granted, and we should then turn 
aside, the blame and the sin will rest with ourselves. 

There is often much in a revival of religion that no 
eye can see. Some poor, but consistent, mother in Israel, 
perhaps, has great power with God in her closet. The 
state of those around her affects her heart, and she retires 
to her closet and pours out her heart in prayer. She 
prays for her minister ; and she makes him powerful by 
the prevalency of her prayers. The world sees his power 
of persuasion, and his increased earnestness and success 
in his work, but they know not all the links of the golden 
chain. Ye aged mothers in Israel, we look to you for 
your prayers ! Forget us not when you retire to your 
closets ! Pray that our hands may be strengthened by 
the Almighty God of Jacob. 

I have one more reason to offer, to show the desira- 
bleness of our praying for the outpouring of the Spirit, 
and that is : 

That if the Spirit should descend in answer to our pray- 
ers, there will be a great awakening of sinners to a sense of 
their danger. 

In the midst of some of our revivals in America, it is 
astonishing what effects have been produced. Convic- 
tions, of the most astonishing kind, have been brought 
under our notice. When the Spirit of God has moved 
upon the hearts of a community in answer to prayer, a 
single passage of Scripture, or a single warning or ex- 
hortation delivered at some former period, has come with 
overwhelming power to the minds of the impenitent. I 
remember a remarkable instance, which may serve to 
illustrate my meaning. The young man related this story 



312 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

to me himself. His father and mother were going to a 
protracted meeting for a revival of religion in the neigh- 
bourhood, and they desired him to accompany them. He 
had no desire for such meetings, and determined not to 
go. His parents then went, and left him at home ; but 
you may be sure they did not neglect to , pray for 
him. After they were gone he began to feel uneasy, and 
wished he had accompanied them. He determined, how- 
ever, to drive away the thought, and tried to amuse him- 
self, taking up first one thing and then another. He still 
felt a dreadful chasm. He then thought he heard a voice 
saying to him, " Come, and let us reason together," &c. 
He tried to get rid of it, but in vain. The voice seemed 
to say, " It is thy God who says it ] if you have any thing 
to say, answer your God; come. Is it not reasonable 
that you should love him V He again tried to get rid of 
it, and went into another part of the house for the pur- 
pose, but, " Come, let us reason together," &c, still 
sounded in his ears, and so continued to follow him, that 
he at last cast himself on his knees, and cried out, "My 
God, I have no reason ; I am a most unreasonable sinner." 
He arose from his knees, went to the protracted meeting, 
and placed himself beside his father and mother, to whom 
he related what had occurred. This was the beginning 
of the work of the Spirit on his soul, which resulted in 
his conversion. Many such things as this may occur 
among you, if the Spirit of God should now come in 
answer to our prayers. If not, we may abandon our 
meetings and return to our worldly avocation, or rather 
humble ourselves and wait upon the Lord until he come. 
Impenitent sinner, we want the Spirit for you, to convince 
you of your danger, and to lead you to fly to Jesus Christ 
as the sinner's friend. Oh, let us, my dear brethren, pray 
for the Spirit ; and let us determine to give God no rest 
until the day-spring from on high has visited us ! 



ADDRESS IV. 

EXTRACT FROM AN ADDRESS ON THE EFFORTS OF THE AMERICAN 
CHRISTIANS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE HEATHEN. 

I may here remark, that the accounts of those dear 
Baptist brethren — Fuller, Ryland, Carey, and others — 
as to the destitution of the East, laid the foundation of 
missions in America. It is strange to find, however, 
that the spark which had thus been blown, should have 
been so long in kindling among us. About the year 
1810, there was a little band of men — four, I believe, in 
number — among whom was the future husband of Har- 
riet Newell, as also, Gordon Hall, names with which I 
have no doubt you are all acquainted. These young men 
read the accounts forwarded to them from time to time ; 
they heard of the prevalence of infanticide in the dif- 
ferent parts of the globe ; they beheld the iron sceptre of 
paganism swayed over the souls of millions of their 
fellow-immortals, and they wept ; for the feelings which 
brought the Son of God from heaven to earth, had taken 
possession of their breasts. Though they loved their 
country, their homes, their literature, their civil and reli- 
gious privileges j yet, following the example of him who, 
though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, 
they were found ready to abandon all, and to become as 
poor as their Master, if thereby their fellow-creatures 
might be made rich. 

I love to look back to the origin of missions, and to 
trace the progress they have made ; because I now find 
that infidels are beginning to look upon them with respect. 
We have given to a whole nation language and literature ; 
improvements in the arts of civilized life ; civil and reli- 



314? ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

gious privileges ; and a code of laws based upon those 
of Britain and America. Infidels ascribe this to the ad- 
vance of philosophy ; but so far from this, it had its origin 
in that love to Christ which existed in the bosoms of a 
few pious young men. Influenced by love to souls, they 
were accustomed to pour out their hearts in prayer at the 
back of a hay-stack, which was near to the college ; and 
there called down a missionary spirit from heaven, which 
has proved the glory of our country. 

It is always pleasing to trace the simplicity of God's 
plans in the execution of his own work. He chooses the 
weak things of the world to confound the mighty, the 
foolish to confound the wise, and the things that are not 
to put to nought the things that are. Philosophers have 
said, "Extend the arts and sciences, promote commerce, 
establish colleges, and send out learned men." We 
waited for years for these philosophic men to act, but we 
waited in vain. They have not that love for Jesus in 
their hearts, which would lead them to eat the bread of 
sorrow with the poor heathen, for the sake of elevating 
them to the enjoyment of the great and glorious privileges 
of the Gospel of Christ. No ! God has wrought this by 
simpler means. He influences the hearts of a few young 
men with love to him, and the Spirit of Jesus sanctifies 
their prayers and efforts to the accomplishment of this 
great end. 

At the time these young men first met to consult and 
pray over the state of the heathen, there was no man in 
our country who would then advocate the cause of mis- 
sions. A man who would then have given a hundred dol- 
lars to the cause of Christ would have been blazoned from 
one end of the land to the other 5 but there are now those 
who give their thousands without its eliciting more than 
a passing remark. The contrast in this, and in other re- 
spects, is exceedingly great. When these young men 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 3l5 

had debated the matter among themselves, they consulted 
some of the aged ministers in the neighbourhood upon 
the subject, but they obtained no light. At last they 
thought of going before a body of Congregationalists in 
a neighbouring state, who were about to assemble at their 
annual convention, and they agreed to lay before them 
the whole of their feelings and deliberations upon the 
subject, and to abide by their decision. These fathers of 
the Church were astonished at the glow of their zeal ; but 
after much deliberation and prayer, what was the result 1 
Why, that whilst they did not question the zeal or the 
devotedness of the parties, that it was not possible for the 
whole of the American Churches, at that time, to support, 
four men. This was the state of feeling upon the subject 
of missions in America, in 1810 ; and yet now, blessed be 
God, we have at least three hundred missionaries em- 
ployed ; and I know one Church that provides for its min- 
ister and supports a missionary. But what next did these 
parties do to whom these young men had applied for ad- 
vice 1 Why, they sent them to England to try to raise 
the necessary funds there ; but, blessed be God, the Eng- 
lish laughed at them, and sent them back, telling them to 
try the Churches in their own country, and not degrade 
them by saying they were unable to support four isolated 
missionaries. They returned and tried the Churches, and 
there found more piety and zeal than they had been led 
to expect. Last year, as is generally known, was a year 
of great depression to America ; and yet there had been 
no nagging in the missionary spirit. This I consider as 
a redeeming fact in favour of America, and nothing has 
more cheered my heart, during an absence of eighteen 
months from that country, than to know that they have 
been able to meet the demands which were against them 
without the slightest decrease in the missionary treasure. 
One society only in America, and that the one estab- 



316 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE REVIVALS, 

lished by these young men, annually expends fifty thou- 
sand dollars in the cause of the heathen. We have now 
stations at Siam, at Constantinople, at Bombay, at Cal- 
cutta, in China, in the Sandwich Islands, and at sundry 
other places ; and have in connection with the Society 
300 missionaries, of whom 150 are ordained, ministers. 
Every time we receive accounts from the South Sea Isles, 
we find that they are improving in their civil and political 
condition, and that such is their eagerness to receive our 
tracts and books, that it is impossible to print them fast 
enough. Well may we say, " What has God wrought 1" 
To such an extent did infanticide exist at the time we 
commenced our operations there, that it was calculated 
that the whole of these islands would have been depopu- 
lated in the course of thirty years. Instead of this, they 
are now, not only rapidly increasing in civilization, but 
as steadily advancing in numbers. Here is a striking 
illustration of the value of money expended in the mis- 
sionary cause ! Blessed be God for teaching this people 
this lesson! 



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